Washington: A new research has demonstrated that it doesn't really matter where one lives i.e. in rural or urban areas if one is suffering from a heart disease.
The study conducted at Women's College Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) examined the outpatient quality of care between urban and rural communities, counters existing research, which suggested gaps in care for those living in rural areas.
Dr. Sacha Bhatia, lead author of the study and a cardiologist at Women's College Hospital, said that research had long suggested that people with heart disease in rural areas were at a disadvantage when it came to access to health care and longevity.
The researchers say while those living in rural areas access their care differently, it did not result in poor health outcomes.
Dr. Bhatia, also a scientist at ICES, asserted that from their study, they know that people with heart disease in rural areas tend to rely heavily on emergency departments for their care because of a lack of outpatient access to family doctors and specialists and despite an increase in emergency department admissions in rural areas, they didn't see worse health outcomes for these individuals.
The study is published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
