Comparison of Rural and Urban Residents’ Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Related to Seeking Medical Care

Abstract

While rural and urban residents offered very similar responses, the associations between attitudes and behaviors were different. One healthy and 2 unhealthy schema patterns emerged. First, fear of hospitals was associated with effective compliance for rural residents and good health habits for urbanites. Second, affordability concerns were ascribed to rural community residents but seemed to reflect personally relevant implicit attitudes since they were associated with poor health adherence and habits for rural residents. Third, mistrust of doctors predicted low adherence for both groups and was also associated with poorer health habits for urbanites. With inconsistencies among implicit and explicit attitudes and behaviors, some residents seemed to be ambivalent about seeking health care.

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