title: Medical care ideals among urban and rural residents in Thailand: a qualitative study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Health care is generally considered to be more highly valued in urban areas than in rural areas. However, studies have reported that there is no difference in the health care values of urban and rural areas in the Kingdom of Thailand, with some studies even indicating that these values are stronger in rural areas. We, therefore, conducted interviews and implemented a qualitative investigation and analysis aimed at elucidating ideals relating to the medical environment among the Kingdom's urban and rural citizens.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study targeted Thai citizens residing in urban and rural areas. The city of Khon Kaen, located in Khon Kaen Province in northeastern Thailand, was selected as the urban area for the study. We selected Donyang village, located in the same province, as the rural study area. In July 2014, we conducted semi-structured group interviews, applying the Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) analytical approach.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We interviewed ten people in Khon Kaen (the urban area) and seven people from Donyang village (the rural area). Five major and distinctive themes emerged from the interviews. These were: locally appropriate standards of medical care, support for local lifestyles, satisfaction with local medical personnel, healthy lifestyles that do not rely on medical services, and desire for regional autonomy/desire to serve the region in terms of medical care. All of these themes were evident in both study areas. Thus, rather than relying on advanced medical services, both urban and rural Thai citizens expressed the desire to continue living within communities (considered as "families"), contributing to them, and tending to all of their health care needs within their communities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study revealed five common themes relating to forms of medical care regarded as ideal among urban and rural citizens of Thailand. Its findings could potentially have important implications for areas characterized by urban-rural inequities relating to the accessibility and utilization of medical services.
authors.affiliation: Division of Primary Health Care, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui, 23-3 Matsuoka-shimoaizuki, Eiheiji-cho, Yoshida-gun, Fukui, 9101193, Japan. tomoki@ikaike.jp.
authors.forename: Tomoki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ikai
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, College of Asian Scholars, Khon Kaen, Thailand. saowalak@cas.ac.th.
authors.forename: Saowalak
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamtree
authors.affiliation: Headquarters for Innovative Society-Academia Cooperation, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan. takemoto@u-fukui.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Takuji
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takemoto
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental Health, Department of International and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan. tarou@u-fukui.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Taro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental Health, Department of International and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan. hitomi@u-fukui.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Hitomi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kanayama
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental Health, Department of International and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan. satokazu@u-fukui.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental Health, Department of International and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan. yukik@u-fukui.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Yukinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kusaka
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan. hhaya@u-fukui.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.affiliation: Division of Promotion of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan. qqhtera@u-fukui.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Hidekazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Terasawa
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012424:Rural Population / Q000639:trends*; D013785:Thailand; D014505:Urban Population / Q000639:trends*