Rural health

The concept of rural health incorporates many fields, including wilderness medicine, geography, midwifery, nursing, sociology, economics, and telehealth or telemedicine.

[3][5][6] People living in rural areas also tend to have less education, lower socioeconomic status, and higher rates of alcohol and smoking when compared to their urban counterparts.

[7] Additionally, the rate of poverty is higher in rural populations globally, contributing to health disparities due to an inability to access healthy foods, healthcare, and housing.

[6] Factors contributing to the increased risk of maternal and child mortality include healthcare worker shortages, as well as a lack of health facilities and resources in rural areas.

Fewer medical practitioners, mental health programs, and healthcare facilities in these areas often mean less preventative care and longer response times in emergencies.

[19] Geographic isolation also creates longer travel times to healthcare facilities, acting as a barrier to accessing care in rural communities.

[25] In recent years, over 30% physicians from sub-Saharan Africa have left low-income rural areas and moved to higher-income countries due to burnout.

The physical isolation of some rural communities coupled with the lack of infrastructure makes it increasingly difficult for those that live in these regions to travel to seek care in clinics and hospitals.

[37][38][39] Insufficient wastewater treatment, lack of paved roads, and exposure to agricultural chemicals have been identified as additional environmental concerns for those living in rural locations.

[40] The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports lower water quality and increased crowding of households as factors affecting disease control in rural and remote locations.

[41] In hot climates, some scholars are exploring how hybrid solar energy systems could to provide power to different kinds of healthcare equipment.

[42] This allows for extending business hours in rural health clinics which could better accommodate community members' schedules making services more inclusive and equitable.

The Local Health Integration Network was established in Ontario in 2007 order to address the needs of the many Ontarians living in rural, northern, and remote areas.

[57] Research studies like these exemplify the major problems needing attention in rural health systems and help lead to more impactful improvement projects.

[70] Eula Hall founded the Mud Creek Clinic in Grethel, Kentucky, to provide free and reduced-priced healthcare to residents of Appalachia.

As of December 2012, the program had facilitated more than 78,000 referrals to care and enabled the distribution of US $43.7 million worth of free or reduced-cost prescription drugs.

Medical pluralism arises as a deliberate approach to resolving the tension between urban and rural health and is manifested in the practice of integrative medicine.

[77] The obstacles continue to challenge the ongoing work of CFHI and other NGO's as they aim to establish a healthcare system that represents the ethnic diversity of the nation.

In Peru, the presence of certain key organizations such as USAID, PIH, and UNICEF as well as more local NGOs have greatly spearheaded the efforts of establishing a system suitable for the diverse populations of the country.

These systems overgeneralize the needs of the populations and perpetuate harmful cycles by believing that medical practices and procedures can apply to anyone regardless of their environment, socioeconomic status, and color of their skin, when reality proves otherwise.

[79] The Philippines program works through urban and rural clinics/health stations, respectively in Manila and the villages on remote islands known as geographically isolated disadvantaged areas.

[79] Their main goal to achieve health equity and social justice is carried out through leadership of local Filipinos and partnerships with community groups.

For residents of rural areas, the lengthy travel time and distance to larger, more developed urban and metropolitan health centers present significant restrictions on access to essential healthcare services.

Telemedicine has been suggested as a way of overcoming transportation barriers for patients and health care providers in rural and geographically isolated areas.

[85] The advantage of telemedicine on educational services includes the delivery of healthcare related lectures and workshops through video and teleconferencing, practical simulations, and webcasting.

[87] The pandemic of coronavirus which began in 2019 had serious negative impacts on people around the globe, from financial and mental health troubles to long term disability and death.

[98] He surmises that the "typical" public health activities have exclusively focused on sanitation and controlling communicable disease leaves little to no money for direct medical care.

"[102] Lutfiyya et al. discuss the introduction to the theory of fundamental causes of health and mortality by Link and Phelan and its important omission of rurality and space.

Taylor notes that risk factors related to cancers of the lung, colon, rectum, prostate, cervix, oral cavity, and pharynx can be modified.

Singh et al. found that increases in lung cancer mortality and the degree of rurality were consistent with higher risk factors.