Rural Health Flashcards
(23 cards)
Rural area definition
If they fall outside of settlements with more than 10,000 resident population
6 elements of rural health and well being
Public/population health and occupational health
Infrastructure
Community development and social capital
Healthy rural economy
Healthy environment
Health care delivery/health systems
Challenges of rural areas in healthcare
Lack of funding
Limited resources
Infrastructure problems
Difficulty retaining trained staff
Late presentation of disease
High rates of infectious disease and trauma
Changing the face of farming
Bigger and fewer farms
Long hours
Many family farms aren’t viable
Psychologically and physically demanding
Financial uncertainty
Occupational health: danger, exposure, zoonoses
Health and well being in rural areas
Average life expectancy is highest in mainly rural areas
Potential years of life lost from all causes of death was lower in predominantly rural areas than urban
Rural poverty and healthy systems in the WHO
marked rural/urban health inequalities
Lack of data
Lack of qualified health workers and greater demand
Greater distance to secondary care
Less access to pharmacies
Financial barriers for individuals
Less effective emergency care
Poor transport, housing and infrastructure
Rural health provider issues
Rural GPs have a different workload
Importance of team and integrated working and resourcefulness
Out of hours
Unscheduled care
Remoteness from specialist services and support
Workload of rural GPS
More accident and emergency work
More clinical skills work
Less access to CPD
More professionally isolated
Community hospitals
Small local hospital
Typically rural
Focus on intermediate care/rehabilitation
Community based with community staff directly accessing service
Medical service sessional typically provided by local GPs often with consultant support
Range of services
Rural housing
People have to move to find affordable housing
Families less able to support
Local services such as schools and shops under threat
Rural enterprises unable to find workers who can afford to live locally
Average house cost over 8.6 times average salary
5% of houses classes as affordable
Average incomes are lower and the average household expenditure is higher
Poverty
Percentage of people living in relative and absolute low income is lower in rural areas than in urban areas but thousands are in households below average income
Greater proportion of pensioners living in relative and absolute low income in rural areas
What does the aging society mean for rural England
More older people with chronic disease
75% over 75 have a chronic disease
50% have more than 1 chronic disease
Farm accidents
By cattle is the largest killers
Agriculture has highest fatal injury rate
Zoonosis
Infection that can be transmitted animals to humans
Transmitted between species
Naturally transmissible between vertebrate animal hosts and humans
People with weakened immune systems more at risk
Zoonotic conditions in UK
influenza
Ringworm
Orf
Bovine TB
Lyme disease
Leptospirosis
Toxoplasmosis
Enteric infections
Orf
Viral skin disease spread by handling infected sheep and goats
Small itchy red lesions enlarge over two weeks into large painful blisters
May have flu like symptoms and fatigue
Spread easily between sheep/goats but not human to human
Causes by parapox virus
Ringworm
Tinea
Fungal infections
No effective treatment for infected cattle, major spread is cattle to cattle
Test cattle, milk pasteurisation and abattoir inspection
Leptospirosis
Weil’s disease
Spread by animals
Mucous membranes, eyes, broken skin
90% is like flu 10% life threatening
People at risk for leptospirosis
Farmers
Slaughters
Sewage workers
Canoeists
Q Fever
Bacterial infection, coxiella burnetii
Sheep cattle or goats
Mostly flu symptoms but can be life threatening and last long time
Lead to miscarriage and stillbirth
Contracted by breathing in particles released by infected animals
People most at risk of Q fever
Farmers
Stable hands
Abattoir workers
Meat packets
Vets
Lyme disease
Lyme borreliosis
2-3k new cases per year in England and wales
If not treated early can cause long term consequences
Management: preventative tick removal, early diagnosis and treatment
People at risk from Lyme disease
People who spend time in woodland or heath land
