Wonderment Wednesday - New Year's Resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVERYONE! Here is to spending the next month remembering to write 20156 correctly and following through on your new's years resolution. Our New Year's resolution? To stop bringing down anyone who read these Wonderment Wednesday posts, especially when it comes to highlighting research. Like this piece by Forbes which reports only 8% of people follow through on their New Year's goal.

Oh. Well, there is always next year. Even though we didn't quite follow through our New Year's resolution, here are some tips to keep yours. It also shouldn't take away from the fact how good New Year's resolutions are. They help encourage healthy activities by people, like our topic today on

4 Facts About Rural Preventive Health Services

1. Rural Residents Are Less Likely To Receive Preventive Health Services
Kevin Bennett looked at rural urban differences for people with the flu vaccine. The results found that people who lived in rural areas were less likely to receive flu vaccines than people in urban areas.However, this isn't just limited to flu vaccines.

In another study also written by Kevin Bennett, PhD  looked into whether rural or urban populations were more likely receive cancer screening services. Rural residents were less likely to receive cancer screenings than urban residents .

2. Healthcare Provider Location Matters
In the same in the same flu vaccine study, it gave us a better understanding of why rural residents have less access to healthcare. Looking closer, rural residents were much more dependent on their clinical providers for their flu vaccines.

In a study written by Jessica Bellinger, PhD, it looked at the role family history when it came to cervical cancer screening. However, what they came to determine was younger populations were more likely to receive cervical cancer screenings. The author suggested that younger populations were more likely to receive cervical cancer screenings because younger women see provider more often. They study suggested that more targeted programs for older women should be implemented, but do these programs work?

3. Targeted Programs For Preventative Health Services Work
Remember the cancer screening study written by Kevin Bennett, PhD?  It found that African American women were more likely to receive preventative health services regardless of rurality. This suggest that this is proof that targeted programs encouraging African American women to receive preventative services work!

4. There Is Still Racial Differences In Preventative Health Services Access.
Unfortunately, there still is racial differences in preventative health access. In another study by Kevin Bennett, PhD, it looked at another area of preventative healthcare which is flu vaccines. It found that white rural residents were more likely to be vaccinated than urban areas than their urban counterparts, On the other hand, rural African Americans were less likely to be vaccinated than their urban counterparts.



In the meantime, remember to give a nice tap on that subscribe button to the very bottom or top left hand side of this page to read more about the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center.We will be taking the next few weeks off, so until next time, take care!

-Matt




References
Bellinger JD, Brandt HM, Hardin J, Bynum S, Sharpe P, Jackson D. (2013). The role of family history of cancer on cervical cancer screening behavior in a population-based survey of women in the southeastern United States. Women Health Iss, 23(4):e197-204.

Bennett KJ, Bellinger JD, Probst JC. (2011). Receipt of cancer screening services: Surprising results from some rural minorities. J Rural Health. Epub 11 Mar 2011.

Bennett KJ, Pumkam C, Probst JC. (2011). Rural-urban differences in the location of influenza vaccine administration. Vaccine. 29(35):5970-7. Epub 2011 Jun 25.

Bennett KJ, Bellinger JD, Probst JC. (2010) Receipt of influenza and pneumonia vaccinations: the dual disparity of rural minorities. J Am Geriatr Soc. 58(10):1896-902.