Rural, urban and suburban comparisons of preventive services in family practice clinics

Numerous studies have compared health services provided in rural and urban areas, and overall they have found that utilization is lower in rural areas . A significant factor in lower utilization is that rural residents have le ss access to health services. Much less is known about rural and urban util ization differences once a patient has access to a service provider. This p aper focuses on preventive services received when a patient is already in a clinic. Using data front an in-depth qualitative study of 16 family practi ce clinics in Nebraska, comparisons of physician-specific preventive servic e rates are made across three geographic categories: rural, urban and subur ban. Results from a one-way multivariate analysis of variance show that pre ventive services rates for nine services examined were as high or higher in rural areas, suggesting that rural health services do not lag for patients with access.