The rapidly increasing rate of urbanization has a major impact on the ecology and evolution of species. While increased temperatures are a key aspect of urbanization ("urban heat islands"), we have very limited knowledge whether this generates differentiation in thermal responses between rural and urban populations. In a common garden experiment, we compared the thermal performance curves (TPCs...

INTRODUCTION Previous research has consistently demonstrated that, in comparison to their cisgender heterosexual counterparts, lesbians face a multitude of women's healthcare-related disparities. However, very little research has been conducted that takes an intersectionality approach to examining the potential influences of rural-urban location on the health-related needs and experiences of le...

BACKGROUND Each year an estimated 390 million dengue infections occur worldwide. In Malaysia, dengue is a growing public health concern but estimate of its disease burden remains uncertain. We compared the urban-rural difference of dengue seroprevalence and determined age-specific dengue seroprevalence in Malaysia. METHODS We undertook analysis on 11,821 subjects from six seroprevalence surve...

BACKGROUND Provision of emergency medical services (EMS) in the rural United States presents a unique challenge. While rural and urban EMS outcomes have been compared, differing urban-rural population characteristics and roles for rural ambulance teams can confound such comparisons. METHODS A year-long study of the prehospital EMS was conducted in rural Richardson County, Nebraska. Data were ...

BACKGROUND Great health inequalities have been reported in China over the past few years. Height has been used as an important parameter of health and it may also be distributed unequally in different regions. By studying height data of Chinese children and adolescents aged 7 to 18 years, we analyze height inequalities and their change trends during 1985-2010. METHODS On the base of data from...

OBJECTIVES First to explore differences in prevalence of overweight and obesity between rural and urban areas of 10 European countries, then to determine whether body mass index varies with the countries' gross domestic product. METHODS We used baseline data (2004) from countries participating in the Study of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, which included 16,695 non-institutionalized...

Most PM2.5-associated mortality studies are not conducted in rural areas where mortality rates may differ when population characteristics, health care access, and PM2.5 composition differ. PM2.5-associated mortality was investigated in the elderly residing in rural-urban zip codes. Exposure (2000-2006) was estimated using different models and Poisson regression was performed using 2006 mortalit...

OBJECTIVE To examine where rural physicians grew up, when during their training they became interested in rural medicine, factors influencing their decision to practise rural medicine, and differences in these measures according to rural or urban upbringing. DESIGN Mailed survey. SETTING Rural Canada. PARTICIPANTS Rural family physicians who graduated between 1991 and 2000 from a Canadian...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of environmental factors on physical fitness of rural and urban children. METHODS To reveal the differences between physical fitness of children living in urban and rural districts of the Turkish Cypriot population, 3939 nine- to eleven-year-old male primary school children from 90 schools of North Cyprus were tested. Testing pro...

BACKGROUND Urban-rural comparisons are of limited relevance in examining the effects of urban migration in developing countries where urbanisation is due to growth of existing urban populations, expansion of urban boundaries, and rural in-migration. Cultural, genetic and life-style backgrounds of migrants and host populations further limit the value of rural-urban comparisons. Therefore we eval...