Rural populations face unique challenges to physical activity that are largely driven by environmental conditions. However, research on rural built environments and physical activity is limited by a paucity of rural-specific environmental assessment tools. The aim of this paper is to describe the development and testing of a rural assessment tool: Inventories for Community Health Assessment in ...

The demands for information are increasing nowadays, providing adequate sources of information for the community is a crucial agenda as it is an essential part of community development particularly the youth; the future leader of our community. As information and communication technology (ICT) play significant roles as sources of information, similarly, the rural library in Malaysia can play th...

This paper examines the residential preferences of rural Nebraskans. Data from the 1998 Nebraska Rural Poll were analyzed at two levels. First, the residential preferences of rural Nebraskans were compared to those of the general population of the United States. Second, the relationships between the attributes of the respondents’ current community and their residential preferences were examined...

Shortages of health care professionals have plagued rural areas of the USA for more than a century. Programs to alleviate them have met with limited success. These programs generally focus on factors that affect recruitment and retention, with the supposition that poor recruitment drives most shortages. The strongest known influence on rural physician recruitment is a "rural upbringing," but li...

The rural community of Macha, Zambia has implemented an array of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), as part of a holistic, respectful vision to inspire people in rural communities to reach their collective and individual potential. Macha is a deep-rural chiefdom, based in Zambia's Southern Province. The environment is typical resource-limited rural setting, with community member...

BACKGROUND Major health inequities between urban and rural populations have resulted in rural health as a reform priority across a number of countries. However, while there is some commonality between rural areas, there is increasing recognition that a one size fits all approach to rural health is ineffective as it fails to align healthcare with local population need. Community participation is...

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder in Nigeria. Many individuals are affected in rural areas, although prevalence data is not available. In this study we aimed to establish the prevalence of epilepsy in a rural community in south-east Nigeria, a community suspected for having a high number of people living with epilepsy. We compared this with the prevalence in a nearby semi-urban communi...

Recent pockets of rural innovation illustrate the mutual benefits that result when rural and remote (rural/remote) health researchers enter into active collaborations with decision-makers and other community-based stakeholders (eg advocacy groups) to address the health needs of rural/remote communities. Ideally, collaborations bring together ‘different perspectives and competencies to produce n...

Although the search for appropriate methodology in educating and training rural community populations is on going, previous efforts have yielded few results, some of which have not been successful with consequences for scarce resources. This paper, based on field reports from the Population Communication Project in Ghana, demonstrates that community learning theory can offer understanding of ap...