Table 1 Concept screening criteria
Concept | Definition |
|---|---|
Utilization: | Consumption of health services had to occur – i.e., utilization—rather than merely the presence of services. For example, studies focusing on “beds per capita” or “physicians by urban–rural catchments” were excluded. |
Publicly funded health services: | The priority was for utilized services to be publicly financed. This meant the exclusion of studies that exclusively assessed utilization of private funded services—either those funded Out of Pocket, or via private insurance. An exception to this was made for mixed “concept” studies (largely in the American context) where public and privately funded insurance consumption were combined in the same study. We accepted these studies because of the presence of the public funding element. |
Rural–urban comparison | Studies were required to have a rural–urban comparison in the reported results. Parameters were not put around definitions of “rurality”. Rather, the intent of the review was to scope international literature pertaining to broad rural–urban variations – even if definitions of rurality varied. |