Health care preferences in a country town

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Abstract
To identify the preferences of rural Australians for health care services and to relate their attitudes towards health care services in general and preventive health care services in particular to their sociodemographic characteristics and their degree of geographic access to available services. Both an interview and a delivery-and-collection questionnaire survey were conducted. The method of paired comparisons was used to determine the structure of preferences for a set of health care services. The study area comprised the small rural settlement of Nyngan, and the surrounding farming lands in the Bogan Shire, New South Wales. A random sample of 20% of residents was surveyed in October 1989. In the absence of any studies on the attitudes of rural Australians towards health care services, no a priori hypotheses were formulated. Both the rank order of preferences and a preference interval showing the "distance" between the preferences were calculated. The results show the overwhelming importance attributed to curative medical services compared to those oriented to preventive health care. In particular, the services provided by the doctor are indisputably the most highly valued of all health care services. The attitudes of rural residents to particular preventive services varied, with those services most relevant to immediate needs being the ones most highly valued. The felt need for health care among country people centres on the adequate provision of doctors and hospitals; preventive services which address the longer-term health care needs of country people may best be provided by closely integrating them with curative medical services.

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