Public Health

Compared with patients in urban areas, rural patients were less likely to seek a kidney, heart or liver transplant, but those who underwent the procedure did not experience different outcomes, researchers reported in a study for the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The authors found that patients living in rural areas were 8% to 15% less likely to be wait-listed for a heart, liver or kidney transplant, and 10% to 20% less likely to receive a transplant.

The study also found that the disparities between urban and rural patients could be linked to barriers faced by rural patients in completing a complex referral and evaluation process. In addition, researchers maintain that the disparity could grow wider as transplant services increasingly move closer to urban areas (Axelrod et al., Journal of the American Medical Association, January 2008).