Rural, urban and suburban comparisons of preventive services in family practice clinics.
Numerous studies have compared health services provided in rural and urban areas, and overall they have found that utilization is lower in rural areas. A significant factor in lower utilization is that rural residents have less access to health services. Much less is known about rural and urban utilization differences once a patient has access to a service provider. This paper focuses on preventive services received when a patient is already in a clinic. Using data from an in-depth qualitative study of 16 family practice clinics in Nebraska, comparisons of physician-specific preventive service rates are made across three geographic categories: rural, urban and suburban. Results from a one-way multivariate analysis of variance show that preventive services rates for nine services examined were as high or higher in rural areas, suggesting that rural health services do not lag for patients with access.
Pol
L G
LG
College of Business Administration, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Department of Preventive and Societal Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68182-0048, USA. louis_pol@unomaha.edu
Rouse
J
J
Zyzanski
S
S
Rasmussen
D
D
Crabtree
B
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003625:Data Collection; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009329:Nebraska; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012424:Rural Population; D013383:Suburban Population; D014505:Urban Population