Rural Health

Outline with Summary

Team Topic: Rural Health

Thesis (central idea): There are many disparities among the rural population that include long term health care access for the elderly, mental health services as well as access to reproductive health services. Illuminating the problems in the growing rural communities will be the first step to creating effective programs in battling this obstacles.

Heading 1: Elderly- The elderly population in rural areas has grown in the United States. Compared to urban areas, elderly access to healthcare services in rural areas can be very difficult depending on that person’s mobility and distance from the community that offers the services they may need.

        Subheading Ia: Elder Health in Rural America

1. Hartman, Rebecca M., MPH & Weierbach, Florence M., RN, MPH, MSN, PhD.

(2013). Elder Health in Rural America. National Rural Health Association Policy Brief. July 7, 2014. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/Janette/Downloads/ElderHealthinRuralAmericaFeb2013.pdf

Hartman and Weierbach (2013) evaluates the elderly (65 years and older) quality of and access to healthcare in the rural areas of the United States. As the elderly become diagnosed with chronic illnesses that require prolonged treatment, the demand on primary care physicians increase, but the access to other healthcare options (i.e. quality) decreases due to distance. Approximately 3.5 million rural residents lost public intercity transportation cutting them off from access to medical specialists and other healthcare services (Hartman & Weierbach, 2013).  To help battle this problem, the Federal Transit Administrations (FTA) Formula Grants for Other than Urbanized Areas was created by the Washington Department of Transportation. This grant provides half of the costs for intercity buses so that the state is only responsible for half. This article is relevant for my research because it provides information with in the last couple of years on elderly health care and community disparities in rural areas.  

Subheading Ib: Access to Quality Health Services in Rural Areas—Long-term Care

1. Hutchison, L., Hawes, C., Williams, L. (2005). Access to Quality Health Services        in rural Areas—Long-term Care. Rural Healthy People 2010: A companion        document to Healthy People 2010. Volume 3. Retrieved from        http://sph.tamhsc.edu/centers/rhp2010/Volume_3/Vol3Ch1OV.pdf     

This piece stresses the various struggles that most elders living in rural areas go through when it comes to health care access. Hutchison, Hawes, and Williams compare a lot of the urban lifestyle with the rural lifestyle in terms of the health-care being given to elders. Patients living in rural America are more likely to develop chronic diseases just because of the lack of resources in the areas. These patients are in more need of long-term care when being compared to urban-city patients; but due to the many barriers of rural living, they are not able to receive it. These barriers include factors like economic costs, lack of knowledge/education, and even distance (places like hospitals and nursing homes could be too far for a patient). The article is more of sign that health-care improvements need to be made within rural living.        

Heading II: Reproductive Health - Significant reproductive health disparities exist between rural and urban women. Many rural areas have limited numbers of women’s health providers, resulting in fewer rural women receiving recommended healthcare.

Subheading IIa: Disparities of reproductive health in rural women as compared to urban        women.

1. McCall-Hosenfeld, JS & Weisman, CS. (2011). Receipt of Preventive Counseling

Among Reproductive-Aged Women in Rural and Urban Communities. Rural and Remote Health.  http://www.rrh.org.au

Preventive health interventions were conducted in Pennsylvania, where the data was examined form the Central Pennsylvania Women’s Health Study’s (CePAWHS’s). Between the years of 2004-2005, data was collected by telephone survey with participants ranging from age 18-45. In order to see if the participants were receiving preventive services, they were asked a series of question related to their healthcare status and how many times they have a regular doctor checkup. Also poverty status was measured to determine if the participants had financial access to healthcare. The study states “The degree of rurality appeared to impact counseling, with women in small or isolated rural areas significantly less likely than urban women… to receive counseling related to smoking, alcohol/drug use and birth control (McCall-Hosenfeld & Weisman, 2011).” Overall the study concludes that “both demographic differences between rural and urban communities as well as aspects of healthcare access govern rural-urban healthcare disparities in preventive counseling (McCall-Hosenfeld & Weisman, 2011).”