BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to examine the differences in diet, physical activity, and weight status among children living in rural and urban America and to study the roles of obesity-related behaviors in residence-based differences in childhood obesity. METHODS We performed cross-sectional analysis of the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data, restricted to...

INTRODUCTION Persons living in rural areas tend to have poorer health than do those who live in urban areas. These disparities have been attributed, in part, to lack of access to care. As a proxy measure of access to care, researchers examined the rate of office visits after emergency department (ED) treatment for asthma between rural and urban areas and pediatric and adult patients in Hawaii. ...

BACKGROUND Fracture risk is rising in countries undergoing rapid rural to urban migration, but whether this reflects an adverse effect of urbanization on intrinsic bone strength, as reflected by bone mineral density (BMD), is currently unknown. METHODS Lumbar spine (LS) and total hip (TH) BMD, and total body fat and lean mass, were obtained from DXA scans performed in the Hyderabad arm of the...

BACKGROUND Childhood fevers due to malaria remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality among under-five children in Nigeria. The degree of vulnerability perceived by mothers will affect their perception of the severity and threat of their child's fever and the patterns of health care use. This study was undertaken to compare maternal responses to childhood fever in urban and rural areas of ...

STUDY OBJECTIVE Determinants of leisure time physical activity (LTPA) in rural middle aged and older women of diverse racial and ethnic groups are not well understood. This study examined: (1) urban-rural differences in LTPA by sociodemographic factors, (2) urban-rural differences in LTPA determinants, and (3) the pattern of relations between LTPA determinants and LTPA. DESIGN A modified vers...

Urban development has a marked effect on the ecological and behavioural traits of many living organisms, including birds. In this paper, we analysed differences in the numbers of wintering birds between rural and urban areas in Poland. We also analysed species richness and abundance in relation to longitude, latitude, human population size, and landscape structure. All these parameters were ana...

required that the Commission report on: • rural Medicare beneficiaries' access to care, • rural providers' quality of care, • special rural Medicare payments, and • the adequacy of Medicare payments to rural providers. In addition to the findings presented on each of the four topics, this report presents a set of principles designed to guide expectations and policies with respect to rural acces...

BACKGROUND Urban birth or upbringing increase schizophrenia risk. Though unknown, the causes of these urban-rural differences have been hypothesized to include, e.g., infections, diet, toxic exposures, social class, or an artefact due to selective migration. METHODS We investigated the hypothesis that traffic related exposures affect schizophrenia risk and that this potential effect is respon...

1Health Oriented Preventive Education (HOPE), Karachi, Pakistan. 2World Health Organization, Sindh, Pakistan. 3TB Control Programme, Pakistan. ABSTRACT We investigated gender differences in knowledge of and attitude towards tuberculosis (TB) in urban and rural communities in Sindh province, Pakistan. Knowledge of symptoms was generally deficient, particularly in rural females. Regarding TB prev...