Health of People Living in Rural Australia

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Background: 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). People living in rural areas are experiencing highly limited excess to health care facilities either because they are not aware of the disease symptoms as a result of low education level or because the treatment is not available for them. In addition, rural population tend to smoke and drink more than others which has an extremely negative impact on their health status demonstrated by higher mortality and morbidity rates than that of the population living in the major cities (Beard et al., 2009). the mortality rate in regional areas of Australia are 1.05-1.15 times, and in remote areas 1.2-1.2 times those in major cities (Phillips, 2009). Another risk factor that has an impact on the quality of health care delivered to rural population is the lack of sufficient skilled experienced health care providers in remote and regional area of Australia. Health care professionals working in rural areas have to be well trained in emergency and trauma cases as the health care conditions presented in rural areas are different than those in the cities as a result of increased environmental hazardous and injuries(Veitch, 2009). Most health care professionals are ex... ... middle of paper ... ...les, M., & Taylor, J. (2009). Boundary crossers, communities, and health: Exploring the role of rural health professionals. Health & Place, 15(1), 284-290. 8. National Rural Health Alliance (2007). Yearbook and Annual Report 2006–2007 [Electronic version]. Retrieved April 09 from http://nrha.ruralhealth.org.au/cms/uploads/publications/nrha_yearbook_web.pdf 9. Phillips, A. (2009). Health status differentials across rural and remote Australia. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 17(1), 2-9. 10. Rural Health Workforce Australia (2009). INTERPROFESSIONAL HEALTH EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA: A PROPOSAL FOR FUTURE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT [Electronic version]. Retrieved April 09 from http://www.rhwa.org.au/client_images/797835.pdf 11. Veitch, C. (2009). Impact of rurality on environmental determinants and hazards. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 17(1), 16-20.

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