Journal
GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH
Volume 7, Issue 1, Pages 1-13Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2011.552513
Keywords
public health; rural health; health policy; measurement; nutrition
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Health disparities between rural and urban populations are an important global health concern, although ascertaining what constitutes a rural context is a complicated undertaking. This article summarises theoretical contributions that help to explain how uncritical use of rural classifications may interfere with epidemiological data and health policies. Bonfim, a community located in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, illustrates the discussion. Bonfim is classified as urban by the Brazilian census, although the community contains farmland, parkland and rural social groups such as family farmers and ecotourism employees. The (mis) classification of Bonfim as urban further complicates the meaning of rural, and thus also what is meant by rural health. Researchers have developed some new rurality indexes to overcome the rural-urban dichotomy and to help understand local scale health determinants. But the obstacles for large-scale studies and government decision-making are still many. 'Rural' is an epidemiological variable that unites in a single indicator diverse life aspects relevant for health purposes. Therefore, to facilitate allocation of health resources based on objective criteria, governments and policy makers must acknowledge the difficulty of defining what rural is and work to improve the definitions they use.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available