Annals of Family Medicine -- Comments for Mainous et al., 2 (6) 563-568

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Original Research:
Arch G. Mainous, III, Dana E. King, David R. Garr, and William S. Pearson
Race, Rural Residence, and Control of Diabetes and Hypertension
Ann Fam Med 2004; 2: 563-568 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Electronic letters published:

A High Priority: Meeting the Needs of Rural Minority Populations: Donna S West (14 December 2004)

A High Priority: Meeting the Needs of Rural Minority Populations 14 December 2004

Donna S West,
Little Rock, AR
Assistant Professor-Pharmacy & Health Policy and Management
Send response to journal:
Re: A High Priority: Meeting the Needs of Rural Minority Populations

I agree with the authors that providing services that optimally meet the needs of rural minority populations is important to reducing morbidity and mortality in this high-risk group. More persons, programs, and resources are needed to address the health issues of rural patients. Data from the state of Arkansas, which is rural for the most part, would support the authors' findings.
There has been interest and success in Arkansas in using community pharmacies to provide health care services to rural patients with diabetes. The most successful program included a physician, nurse, dietician, and community pharmacist. Having the program located in a community pharmacy in a rural area made it accessible to many people. Also when the patient had a question, it was easy to call the pharmacist. Funding for these type programs are often difficult to find. It would seem that for the health care system to reach minority populations in rural areas and provide continuous care, innovative programs that allow for the collaboration of multiple health care providers are necessary.
Not only will developing innovative programs be necessary, but we must also address the other issues discussed by the authors. For example, further study is needed to understand some of the medication beliefs and adherence issues in this population. Counseling interventions and other programs to help with health literacy are needed. Access to medications is also an obvious issue. Medication assistance programs are often not utilized in rural areas as much as in urban areas where large medical institutions are located.
This study demonstrates the need for more investigation of how to care for minority populations in rural areas.
Competing interests: None declared