Canadians value ease of access to their health services. Although many studies have focused on accessibility to health services in Canada, few have examined rural-urban differences in this aspect, particularly from a national perspective. Yet disparities in access to health services exist between rural and urban populations, as do the challenges of delivering health care to more remote areas or to those with small populations. “Canada’s Rural Communities: Understanding Rural Health and Its Determinants” is a three-year research project co-funded by the Canadian Population Health Initiative (CPHI) of the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). It involves investigators from the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research (CRaNHR) at Laurentian University, and other researchers. The first publication of the research project was How Healthy Are Rural Canadians? An Assessment of Their Health Status and Health Determinants;Footnote 1a1a this, the second publication, is a descriptive analysis of the utilization patterns of a broad range of health services by rural residents compared to their urban counterparts.

Background: Few published studies looking at cross-national comparisons of rural-urban health status are available. As a first step towards addressing the lack of information on how rural populations in Canada compare with rural populations elsewhere in the world, this paper examines and contrasts Canadian mortality risks of selected diseases in rural and urban areas with those of Australia. Methods: Age-standardized mortality ratios for selected causes of deaths were calculated at the national level and broken down into place of residence categories using countryspecific definitions of rurality (Metropolitan Influence Zones in Canada and the Australian Standard Geographical Classification [ASGC] Remoteness in Australia). Results: Patterns of rural-urban mortality risk were mostly similar in both countries. However, depending on the causes of death examined, important differences were found. Mortality from motor vehicle accidents, suicide and a few cancer sites showed similar urban-rural gradients in both Canada and Australia. Notable differences were found for diabetes, all cancers combined, as well as lung and colorectal cancer. Rural Australians were at higher risk of dying from these diseases than their urban counterparts, whereas rural Canadians were at lower risk than urban Canadians. Discussion: Overall, the patterns that have emerged from this comparison of Canadian and Australian mortality risks suggest that health status disparities between rural and urban populations are not limited to a specific country or region of the world. However, there are also important differences between the two countries, as the geographic mortality patterns varied according to sex and according to disease category. This analysis is an initial step in promoting discussion of rural health in an international context. MeSH terms: Rural health; urban health; Canada; Australia; chronic disease; injury; mortality La traduction du résumé se trouve à la fin de l'article.

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Les Canadiens ont à cœur la facilité d’accès aux services de santé. Bien que de nombreuses études aient porté sur l’accessibilité des soins de santé au Canada, très peu d’entre elles l’ont examinée sous l’angle des différences entre les régions urbaines et rurales, particulièrement dans une perspective à échelle nationale. Pourtant, il existe des disparités entre les populations des régions urbaines et rurales, tout comme il existe des différences entre les services dans les régions éloignées et dans les régions à faible densité de population. Les collectivités rurales au Canada : comprendre la santé rurale et ses déterminants est un programme de recherche de trois ans financé par l’Initiative sur la santé de la population canadienne (ISPC) de l’Institut canadien d’information sur la santé (ICIS)et par l’Agence de la santé publique du Canada (l’ASPC). Y participent entre autres des chercheurs de l’Agence de la santé publique du Canada (ASPC) et du Centre de recherche en santé dans les milieux ruraux et du Nord de l'Université Laurentienne et d’autres chercheurs. Le premier document publié dans le cadre de ce programme de recherche s’intitule Comment se portent les Canadiens vivant en milieu rural? Une évaluation de leur état de santé et des déterminants de la santéFootnote 1a1a. Le présent document constitue la seconde publication de ce programme : il s’agit d’une analyse descriptive et comparative de l’utilisation d’un grand nombre de services de santé par les populations rurales et urbaines.