Research Alert: June 12, 2019

Measuring Access to Care in National Surveys: Implications for Rural Health

In order to assess the efficacy of healthcare in meeting the needs of the population and to ensure access to timely, appropriate care, it is important to have nationally representative measures of access and barriers to healthcare. Given the unique healthcare context in rural settings, it is also important to understand whether, and how, access is measured in ways that are salient for rural populations. In this brief, we review access measures included in major national surveys and discuss implications for rural research on access to care.

Additional Resources of Interest:

• More information about the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
• More information from the Rural Health Information Hub's topic guides: Healthcare Access, What is Rural?