Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39363445›Full record

ArticleThe Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association2025

Impact of rurality on health care utilization among Australian residents from 2009 to 2021.

Engida Yisma, Martin Jones, Lee San Pauh, Sandra Walsh, Sara Jones, Esther May, Marianne Gillam

Abstract read
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In one paragraph

Article in The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Impact of rurality on health care utilization among Australian residents from 2009 to 2021.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Engida YismaDepartment of Rural Health, University of South Australia, Whyalla Norrie and Mount Barker, South Australia, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0703-1515
Martin JonesDepartment of Rural Health, University of South Australia, Whyalla Norrie and Mount Barker, South Australia, Australia.
Lee San PauhDepartment of Rural Health, University of South Australia, Whyalla Norrie and Mount Barker, South Australia, Australia.
Sandra WalshDepartment of Rural Health, University of South Australia, Whyalla Norrie and Mount Barker, South Australia, Australia.
Sara JonesDepartment of Rural Health, University of South Australia, Whyalla Norrie and Mount Barker, South Australia, Australia.
Esther MayIIMPACT in Health, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Marianne GillamDepartment of Rural Health, University of South Australia, Whyalla Norrie and Mount Barker, South Australia, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeIn Australia, there is limited research regarding the effect of rurality on health care utilization using longitudinal data.

methodsWe analyzed data from four annual waves (2009, 2013, 2017, and 2021) of the longitudinal Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey to examine changes in the health care utilization over time among urban and rural residents. Poisson regression models estimated adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for rural versus urban residents, accounting for a range of health-related and sociodemographic characteristics. Health care utilization was measured using four key indicators: visits to family doctor or another general practitioner (GP visits from hereon), hospital admissions, total nights' stay in the hospital, and prescribed medications taken on a regular basis.

resultsThe aIRR for GP visits among rural versus urban Australian residents increased over time, from 0.89 (95% CI: 0.82 to 0.97) in 2009 to 0.96 (95% CI: 0.89 to 1.04) in 2021 although not consistently increased in a statistically significant manner. While there were no consistent temporal patterns, our analysis found that rural residents experienced higher number of hospital admissions (aIRR, 1.12 to 1.15) and number of nights in the hospital in the last 12 months (aIRR, 1.18 to 1.25) compared to urban residents. Moreover, rurality had little to no effect on the number of prescribed medications taken on a regualar basis in the 12 months preceding the HILDA Surveys in 2013, 2017, and 2021.

conclusionsThis study found that GP visits were less frequent among rural residents compared to metropolitan residents in 2009, indicating health care access disparities between rural and urban areas in Australia. However, the differences in GP visits between rural and urban areas were less pronounced  from 2013 to 2021.

Indexed as

Patient Acceptance of Health CareRural PopulationAdolescentAdultAgedAustraliaFemaleHumansLongitudinal StudiesMaleMiddle AgedSurveys and QuestionnairesUrban Populationhealth care utilizationHILDA Surveyhospitalizationphysician visitsrurality

Identifiers

PMID39363445
PMCPMC11950417

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.