Preventive Care: Supports and Barriers to Best Practices

Preventive health screenings are generally underutilized in the United States by the elderly,

especially those residing in rural areas. This problem persists despite general consensus that

screenings are a key health indicator and offer the potential for improved health and functional

status, longer survival, and enhanced quality of life. Considering that about one-quarter of the

total elderly population in the United States reside in rural communities, surprisingly little is

known about their use of preventive health services. Most of the research to date has used limited

datasets, focused on subpopulations, or concentrated on only a few specific screenings.

Using an integrative approach, including secondary data analysis of a large nationally representative sample of aged rural Medicare beneficiaries (from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS)) and complementary qualitative interviews with rural elders, this research offer a more complete understanding of the factors associated with receiving “gold standard” health care screenings and vaccinations. influencing use of these practices. The study results focus on the following:

1) A description of the utilization of best practice preventive health care screenings and vaccinations among a national rural sample of Medicare beneficiaries, as compared to urban elders;

2) The identification of individual level factors associated with utilization of these practices; and,

3) An exploration of community and health system factors which impede or facilitate the utilization of best practice screenings and vaccinations among rural elders.