title: How do we define 'rurality' in the teaching on medical demography?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is growing interest worldwide in the teaching of rural and community medicine to medical students. Medical teachers have a responsibility to introduce their students to different health experiences, in both urban and rural environments. The definition of a rural area can be problematic.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  There is no one universal definition of a rural area. This makes comparisons of data from differently defined areas problematic. Definitions of a rural area have been based on population size, access to health care, occupation and other socioeconomic variables, and political proclamations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is no easy answer to such a complex issue as the definition of rurality. At best, medical teachers should inform their students that the definition of a rural area can be context specific, and may not be comparable between states. Defining the features of a particular rural area in academic writing may reduce some of the difficulties a reader may have in understanding the context. A universal definition of a rural area is not possible.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health, University of Malawi-College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi. muula@email.unc.edu
authors.forename: Adamson
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Muula
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000592:standards; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000145:classification; D006801:Humans; D008295:Malawi; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000145:classification*; D012424:Rural Population / Q000145:classification; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014481:United States