Abstract
BackgroundHealth care is generally considered to be more highly valued in urban areas than in rural areas. However, studies have reported that there is no difference in the health care values of urban and rural areas in the Kingdom of Thailand, with some studies even indicating that these values are stronger in rural areas. We, therefore, conducted interviews and implemented a qualitative investigation and analysis aimed at elucidating ideals relating to the medical environment among the Kingdom’s urban and rural citizens.MethodsThe study targeted Thai citizens residing in urban and rural areas. The city of Khon Kaen, located in Khon Kaen Province in northeastern Thailand, was selected as the urban area for the study. We selected Donyang village, located in the same province, as the rural study area. In July 2014, we conducted semi-structured group interviews, applying the Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) analytical approach.ResultsWe interviewed ten people in Khon Kaen (the urban area) and seven people from Donyang village (the rural area). Five major and distinctive themes emerged from the interviews. These were: locally appropriate standards of medical care, support for local lifestyles, satisfaction with local medical personnel, healthy lifestyles that do not rely on medical services, and desire for regional autonomy/desire to serve the region in terms of medical care. All of these themes were evident in both study areas. Thus, rather than relying on advanced medical services, both urban and rural Thai citizens expressed the desire to continue living within communities (considered as “families”), contributing to them, and tending to all of their health care needs within their communities.ConclusionsThis study revealed five common themes relating to forms of medical care regarded as ideal among urban and rural citizens of Thailand. Its findings could potentially have important implications for areas characterized by urban–rural inequities relating to the accessibility and utilization of medical services.
Highlights
Health care is generally considered to be more highly valued in urban areas than in rural areas
Themes Five major themes were identified. These were: locally appropriate standards of medical care, support for local lifestyles, satisfaction with local medical personnel, healthy lifestyles that do not rely on medical services, Table 2 Profiles of Participants Interviewed about Ideal Health Care in Thailand
Desire for regional autonomy/desire to serve the region in terms of medical care
Summary
Health care is generally considered to be more highly valued in urban areas than in rural areas. We conducted interviews and implemented a qualitative investigation and analysis aimed at elucidating ideals relating to the medical environment among the Kingdom’s urban and rural citizens. Previous studies have found that health care values do not differ between Thai urban and rural areas, with some indicating that a higher value is placed on these values in rural areas [16,17,18]. We conducted interviews and a qualitative investigation and analysis aimed at elucidating ideals relating to the medical environment among Thai urban and rural citizens. The insights and findings gained in the context of Thailand will, we hope, contribute to resolving worldwide inequity in health care
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