title: Access to healthcare services by people with intellectual disabilities: a rural-urban comparison.
abstract: Access to healthcare services is poor both for adults with intellectual disabilities and for people living in rural areas. Adults with intellectual disabilities in rural areas may therefore be at a double disadvantage. Representative data were analysed from 39 rural and 633 urban participants from Scotland. Information on demographics, healthcare, and access to services were collected from face-to-face interviews and primary care notes. Both direct comparison and binary logistic regression showed the rural sample to have had significantly more contact with primary (odds ratio = 4.02, 95% CI 1.56-10.35, P = 0.004) and secondary health care (OR = 3.93, 95% CI = 1.81-8.55, P = 0.001). Contact with allied healthcare professionals was not significantly different, except that people in the rural sample were significantly more likely to have had recent contact with a dentist and an optician. Contrary to the original hypothesis, adults with intellectual disabilities living in rural areas were not found to be disadvantaged.
authors.affiliation: University of Glasgow, Scotland.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nicholson
authors.forename: Sally-Ann
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Cooper
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019989:Persons with Intellectual Disabilities; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012424:Rural Population; D012606:Scotland; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult