Access to Specialist Care in Rural Saskatchewan: The Saskatchewan Rural Health Study

Healthcare

Chandima P. Karunanayake³  Donna C. Rennie³  Louise Hagel³  Joshua Lawson³  Bonnie Janzen²  William Pickett¹  James A. Dosman³  Punam Pahwa³  rib-type="author">The Saskatchewan Rural Health Study Group1contrib-type="author">The Saskatchewan Rural Health Study Group1<³ 

[1] Department of Public Health Sciences, Queens University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada; E-Mail:;Department of Community Health & Epidemiology, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, 107 Wiggins Road, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E5, Canada; E-Mail:;Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture, University of Saskatchewan, 104 Clinic Place, Saskatoon, SK S7N 2Z4, Canada; E-Mails:

关键词: rural;    specialist care;    distance;   

DOI  :  10.3390/healthcare3010084

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The role of place has emerged as an important factor in determining people’s health experiences. Rural populations experience an excess in mortality and morbidity compared to those in urban settings. One of the factors thought to contribute to this rural-urban health disparity is access to healthcare. The objective of this analysis was to examine access to specialized medical care services and several possible determinants of access to services in a distinctly rural population in Canada. In winter 2010, we conducted a baseline mail survey of 11,982 households located in rural Saskatchewan, Canada. We obtained 4620 completed household surveys. A key informant for each household responded to questions about access to medical specialists and the exact distance traveled to these services. Correlates of interest included the location of the residence within the province and within each household, socioeconomic status, household smoking status, median age of household residents, number of non-respiratory chronic conditions and number of current respiratory conditions. Analyses were conducted using log binomial regression for the outcome of interest. The overall response rate was 52%. Of households who required a visit to a medical specialist in the past 12 months, 23% reported having difficulty accessing specialist care. The magnitude of risk for encountering difficulty accessing medical specialist care services increased with the greatest distance categories. Accessing specialist care professionals by rural residents was particularly difficult for persons with current respiratory conditions.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.