Rural families and rural health
John S Humphreys
Rural Health Research, Centre for Rural Health, Monash University, Strathdale VIC
PP: 167 - 181
Abstract
The role of the family in maintaining and promoting the health of rural Australians has been largely overlooked on the rural health research agenda.
This article reports the results of a major study of 112 families from four small communities in the Mallee region in north-west Victoria. Each family maintained a health diary over a 4-month period, documenting the day-to-day needs of family members, how well family members felt, their use of health services, and how they practise self-care and health behaviour conducive to good health.
The results showed that rural families experienced some health problem in 1 out of 2 weeks, with 50% experiencing some ill-health with a duration exceeding 3 weeks. Notable among the findings was the wide range of illnesses for which they accessed some health service, the high proportion of families in which a health problem was sufficiently serious to affect the function of persons in some way, and the widespread incidence of stress and its impact on all members of families. As economic and social changes create additional pressures for families, exacerbating existing problems of poor accessibility to services, the need to adopt a primary health care approach as the basis for rural health service provision is vital and urgent.
Keywords
rural, families, health, stress, services
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