Identifying access barriers faced by rural and dispersed communities to better address their needs: implications and lessons learned for rural proofing for health in the Americas and beyond

CONCLUSION: This study presented an approach for data collection and analysis that is both feasible and effective for evaluating access barriers in rural and remote communities. While this study explored access barriers through general health services in two rural settings, the issues identified reflect the structural deficiencies of many health systems. These challenges and singularities require adaptive organizational models for the provision of health services that respond to the specific characteristics of rural and indigenous communities. This study indicates the potential relevance of conducting assessments of barriers to health services as part of a wider approach to rural proofing and supports the notion that a mixed-methods approach, linking secondary analysis of existing relevant national survey data with focused key-informant interview data, may be an effective and efficient way to transform data into the knowledge policymakers need to rural proof health policies.PMID:36878479 | DOI:10.22605/RRH7822
Source: Rural Remote Health - Category: Rural Health Authors: Source Type: research