Historically, health care professionals believed rural populations had a health advantage. They frequently sent tuberculosis patients and others into the country for fresh air and a change of scenery (Lourenço 2012). However, as the scientific understanding of disease expanded and urban population and political power grew, these advantages diminished. Today, staggering disparities exist across the globe in the health status of rural populations compared to their urban counterparts, both between and within every country, making this a truly global issue. As is the case with many other global health issues, developing countries experience these inequalities with greater severity due to a lack of infrastructure and resources, especially when considering maternal and infant health. For example, in Burundi, as of 2014, the urban infant mortality rate was 49 deaths per 1000 live births, while the rural infant mortality rate was 81. In 2014, Laos had an urban infant mortality rate of 39 but a rural infant mortality rate of 85. Finally, in Bolivia in 2014, the urban infant mortality rate was 43 while the rural mortality rate was 75 (Population Reference Bureau 2014). These data demonstrate the dramatic inequity between urban and rural areas and indicate disparate access to health care for women and children. Action must be taken to alleviate these disparities in developing countries with regards to maternal and infant health. The global health community must first collaborate to
The year 2017 saw a lot of changes to the landscape in Metcalfe County and one little lady from Center even put us on the national news. Here are a few highlights.
Many of the individuals who live within these communities are elderly, immigrants, farmers and migrants. They work and live off their land and lack the needed funds to purchase health insurance, because it is not affordable and they do not have transportation or a way of getting on bus routes, because they live so far out. The nearest local hospital is about 50 miles away and if they get seriously injured they must wait for an ambulance or life flight to arrive with an additional ride of about an hour before they receive adequate care in case of an emergency.
Health related policy (HRP) targets two of the fundamental causes, medical and health systems laws and policies, making it the primary solution for decreasing the maternal mortality rate (MMR). However, a wider discussion has emerged about the importance of social determinants of health, the second fundamental cause, at a global level. The Report of the World Health Organization 's Commission on Social Determinates of Health (CSDH) (2008) importantly acknowledged that poverty, exploitation, oppression, and injustice damage health (CSDH, 2008). This document expanded the discussion on the
Living in a remote area has always been thought to have negative influences on the individual. There are 35 % of the total population in Australia living in rural area(Phillips, 2009).Rural areas in Australia and all over the world are not geographically isolated and disadvantaged only but also culturally and economically deprived which has great consequences on the health status of the population. The main two factors that have a major effect on rural health are socioeconomic status and cultural issues(Beard, Tomaska, Earnest, Summerhayes, & Morgan, 2009).
It is important to understand determinants such as poverty, lack in health care access, exposure to disease early in life, social positions, gender, race/ethnicity will all effect communities who receive health inequalities. Organizations such as WHO, National Institute of Health (NIH), and Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been working to provide the best quality of care for urban/rural populations. An adjustment in policies is needed to protect access to health, education, and employment for disadvantaged populations. Even though governments have made policies to provide health to all, we can see urban/rural populations are in a lack of quality of care. Health needs to be a right for all, and not based on whether in urban area or socioeconomic status they are in. Individuals’ irrespective of socioeconomic class or race should have the same rights and
The Causes of Disparities in Rural Healthcare There are many challenges facing health care for patients in rural areas that differ from patients that live in urban areas. Rural Americans has many factors that are causing disparities in health care unlike patients that live in urban area. Some of the major factors are economic, cultural, social differences, and the lack of jobs. The fact that these patient chose to live in a rural area shouldn’t cause them to have an unhealthy life.
Health and social justice have continued to be a major problem that affects the way people live and chance of illness, and consequent risk of premature death. The recent report from the World Health Organization shows that health disparities have continued to persist within and among countries and different regions of the world. For example, infectious diseases and undernutrition are common in poor and developing countries (WHO, 2018). The gap is even much worse between the rural and urban dwellers because of the economic differences and availability of healthcare services. Although some of the developed nations have attempted
The Journal of Global Health Perspectives is an online open-access research journal. In addition to publishing primary research they also publish articles that relate meaningful experiences, observations and reflections from members of the global health community. To publish an article in the journal the article had to be E mailed to them along with a signed copyright policy and indicate the category of the work. Current topics of interest are Child health inequality, Maternal health in India, Ebola eradication.
The poor areas have many less doctors than the wealthy spots, even though the rural areas suffer from much harsher diseases on a larger scale. The countries either provide medical training for their own citizens or fund their training from somewhere else, but once the students have the skills to save lives, they move to different places for higher pay. This issue lies not only in South Africa, but in the entire continent. For example, for every Liberian doctor working in Liberia, there are two working abroad. Not only is there a shortage of doctors in general (averaging about 1.15 doctors for every 1,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa) but a shortage of nurses and midwives. Over two-thirds of mothers in Africa have no health professionals to guide them through hardships regarding pregnancy and childbirth, causing Africa alone to be responsible for over one half of the world’s infant and maternal
Rural and Urban Health Care The term “rural” encompasses all populations, housing, and territory not included within an urban area. To qualify as an urban area, the territory identified must encompass at least 2,500 people, at least 1,500 of which reside outside institutional group quarters (Branch, 2016). Practice areas for Kentucky
This eventually results in disparities in the quality of the health care services available for women in such places. Political and economic forces have somehow promoted this inequality, and their decisions make it hard for women from countries like India to access health care as needed. Farmer however argues that the European and American anthropologists are facing the challenge of eradicating malnutrition and hunger issues all of which are directly linked to poverty (Hogikyan, 2013). The policy makers are not able to ensure food security in a country like Haiti. This hence makes it difficult to ensure that the public health is
The health of many women in Algeria which is part of Sub-Saharan Africa in 1990 were impacted by the poor health care system because they lived in poverty. Poverty caused these women to lack essential needs to live a quality life. They lacked or could not afford resources such as supplies, health care professionals, and facilities for healthcare, clean water, and waste disposal. This ultimately affected the health of women and their children. For instance, lack of clean water and waste disposal facilities can cause health abnormalities such as cholera or typhoid fever which can cause devastating deaths. This is a healthcare problem because of the lack of funding. The lack of funding prevents antibiotics from being used to prevent death, and prevents African’s from being vaccinated against typhoid fever. Another example of how poverty affects woman’s health is unintended pregnancy, which is because they are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior. It's part of the health crisis because it includes a poor health system, and a lack of education about proper nutrition and behaviors during pregnancy. Complications in these pregnancies due to poor nutrition and not visiting the doctor regularly includes increased infant mortality. Infant mortality in the slums of Nairobe is 91.3% while it is 75.9% in urban areas where there is a better developed healthcare system. The inferiority of poor Africans in
Minorities are more likely to face health challenges than White Americans. Their low income, minority status, language barriers, and cultural habits can cause problems accessing to health care. Minorities also have fewer Medicare beneficiaries such as fewer medical screenings, ambulatory and physician visits, and flu shots than White Americans (Shi & Singh, 2017). Medicare covers those who are 65 and over, disabled, and End State Renal Disease (Begay, Chapter 6 Lecture, Mar 21). Some minorities are undocumented immigrants that do not qualify for Medicaid, which covers for the poor, and cannot purchase marketplace coverage (Begay, Chapter 13 Lecture, Mar 30). Low income is usually connected to poor health. Since most minorities are more likely to work a low-income job, it requires more physical activity which can cause injuries and they are less likely to have health insurance.
A challenge that many rural communities are dealing with is the lack of primary care physicians, specialist, understaffed hospitals, and transportation. “Only about ten percent of physicians practice in rural America despite the fact that nearly one-fourth of the population lives in these areas” (National Rural Health Association [NHRA], n.d., para. 2). Although, there are programs designed to improve patients access to hospitals and physicians in rural areas, provider access for these patients remains a barrier. Technology can bridge some of the gaps of care for these patients and it can be beneficial in many ways. With enhanced technology, primary care physicians and patients will be able to have support, access to quality care, improvement in self-management skills, which ultimately, will improve a patient’s health. To assist physicians with delivery of optimal care and for patients to be able to go to scheduled wellness visits with physicians, a new approach to solving rural health barriers are needed.
Worldwide, approximately 1.3 billion people do not have access to affordable and efficient healthcare and out of those who have access, almost 170 million are forced to spend around 40 % of their income on medical treatment (Asante et al,2016).In low and middle income countries (LMICs), the major constraint to the access of healthcare is financial burden, where out-of-pocket payments (OPP) contribute to approximately 50 % of total health expenditure (WHO, 2010). As a result, in these countries there is high probability of many households being pushed into poverty due to high medical expenses (McIntyre,2006).The matter of concern in LMICS is that poor and disadvantaged groups of population do not have access to adequate quality of healthcare.For instance, according to WHO (2010) up to 20 % of women in rich population are more likely to have a birth attended by skilled health worker than a poor woman. Therefore, taking an action to address health inequities faced in these countries would save up to 700,000 women.