This article provides an overview of the current Chinese health care system with particular emphasis on rural-urban differences. China's post-1978 economic reforms, although they improved general living standards, created some unintended consequences, as evidenced by the disintegration of the rural cooperative medical system and the sharp reduction in the number of "barefoot doctors", both of w...

Citation: Biard C, Brischoux F, Meillère A, Michaud B, Nivière M, Ruault S, Vaugoyeau M and Angelier F (2017) Growing in Cities: An Urban Penalty for Wild Birds? A Study of Phenotypic Differences between Urban and Rural Great Tit Chicks (Parus major). Front. Ecol. Evol. 5:79. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2017.00079 Growing in Cities: An Urban Penalty for Wild Birds? A Study of Phenotypic Differences betwe...

The incidence of all cancers in China is generally higher in urban areas; however, the mortality risk for affected patients is considerably higher in rural areas. We present a subanalysis investigating the differences in patient and disease characteristics, treatment patterns, and outcomes between rural and urban patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer at West China Hospital between 2005...

CONTEXT Past studies show that rural populations are less likely than urban populations to have health insurance coverage, which may severely limit their access to needed health services. PURPOSE To examine rural-urban differences in various aspects of health insurance coverage among working-age adults in Kentucky. METHODS Data are from a household survey conducted in Kentucky in 2005. The ...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to assess rural-urban differences in mammography and Papanicolaou (Pap) smear screening. METHODS Data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (1994-2000, 2002, 2004) were used to examine trends in these two tests by rural-urban residence location. RESULTS In 2004, 70.8 percent of rural and 75.7 percent of urban respondents had received t...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between childhood undernutrition and poverty in urban and rural areas. DESIGN Anthropometric and socio-economic data from Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys in Angola-Secured Territory (Angola ST), Central African Republic and Senegal were used in this analysis. The population considered in this study is children 0-59 months, ...

BACKGROUND Asthma prevalence is generally lower in rural locations with some indication of an urban-rural gradient. However, among children with asthma, certain rural exposures thought to protect against the development of asthma could aggravate the condition. We examined childhood asthma prevalence and related conditions along an urban-rural gradient and also examined the characteristics of th...

INTRODUCTION Ease of access to substances has been shown to have a direct and significant relationship with substance use for school-aged children. Previous research involving rural samples of middle and high school students reveals that perceived ease of access to substances is a significant predictor of recent use among rural adolescents; however, it is unclear if perceived access to substanc...