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Individuals and families in rural areas face disparities in health as well as access to healthcare. Research has found that when compared to urban communities, rural areas have worse health outcomes including challenges with mental health, substance abuse, physical health, and sexual health. Relevant findings have also shown that in order to understand these challenges it is important to discuss access, including the different factors involved: availability, affordability, and acceptability. Along with defining access, there are several theories and frameworks that additionally help explain healthcare access in rural areas. Although availability, affordability, and acceptability are important variables when it comes to access, there are also several barriers that must be considered, including poverty, occupation, education, insurance, and lack of competence. Once all of these aspects are addressed, different strategies can be more easily implemented in order to improve health and access to care in rural areas. These different disparities in heath and access to care can be seen throughout the North Country, and can be helpful in understanding the larger pattern of health in rural and urban areas. [Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: [email protected] Website: http://www. transformativestudies.org ©2021 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]
KEYWORDS: Rural Health, Rural Healthcare Disparities, Rural vs. Urban, North Country.
Healthcare is central topic in areas across the United States. With illness and disease being a problem individuals face daily, it is crucial that these individuals have the ability to access care whenever it is needed. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. There are disparities in both health and access to healthcare between rural and urban communities. In rural communities, individuals and families face problems with mental health, including increased suicide rates and stigma surrounding mental health challenges (Nicholson 305). Substance abuse also plays an important role including increased rates of death from drug overdose (Mack, Jones, and Ballesteros 7). Physical health plays one of the most prominent roles with increased rates of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and obesity, according to The National Center for Health Statistics "Health, United States, 2017: With special features on mortality." Finally, there are higher rates of HPV in rural areas due to the fact that vaccinations are less common ("Human Papillomavirus: HPV...