Rural-urban differences in access to Iowa child health services.

Indicators of access, utilization, and quality of available child health services as well as health status were obtained through a telephone survey of Iowa households with children under age six. These indicators were compared for rural-urban subsamples within an AFDC sample drawn from Iowa Department of Human Service files (N = 637), and within poverty (N = 129) and nonpoverty groups (N = 631) drawn from the population of all households in the state with children under age six. About 55 percent of all households studied were rural. Rural households were generally larger than urban households, more likely to be intact maritally, white, and earning a living from farming. The findings support the hypothesis that place of residence has an impact on access, utilization, and quality of child health services over and above family income, although not always to the disadvantage of rural children. Typical problems for rural children, irrespective of income, were access to pediatric care, greater travel time to providers, and discontinuity of well care and sick care. Rural children in all income groups had lower seat belt use than urban children; they were also less likely to have well visits and their providers showed less attentiveness to behavioral and developmental issues at these visits. Rural residency exacerbated problems in access to care for low income children, who were less likely to be eligible for AFDC/Medicaid than their urban counterparts. Medicaid coverage, however, did not eliminate rural-urban differences in receiving desired medical care.