Context/Purpose: Most rural hospitals can provide medical care to acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients, but a need for advanced cardiac care requires timely transfer to a tertiary hospital. There is little information on AMI in-hospital mortality predictors among rural transfer patients. Methods: Cross-sectional retrospective analyses on…

Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure causes cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and pulmonary disorders. Smoke-free policies are the most effective way to prevent exposure to SHS. A 5-year community-based randomized control trial (RCT) is in progress to assess factors associated with smoke-free policy development in rural communities. Considering…

Context: Emergency Department (ED) use among the rural elderly may present a different pattern from the urban elderly, thus requiring different policy initiatives. However, ED use among the rural elderly has seldom been studied and is little understood. Purpose: To characterize factors associated with having any versus no ED use among the rural…

Purpose: (1) Determine if there is an association between 3 conotruncal heart birth defects and urban/rural residence of mother. (2) Compare results using different methods of measuring urban/rural status. Methods: Data were taken from the Texas Birth Defects Registry, 1999-2003. Poisson regression was used to compare crude and adjusted birth…