ABSTRACT
This chapter defines rural and remote areas and health status. In 1990, the Department of Community Services and Health used population size and density by Statistical Local Area (SLA) to classify areas into five broad subdivisions: ‘urban’, ‘rural major’, ‘rural other’, ‘remote major’ and ‘remote other’. Australia is experiencing a resurgence in interest and development in rural, regional and remote areas. Health inevitably becomes a concern when rural communities increasingly experience poverty, high levels of unemployment, ageing of the population, and economic problems such as the major economic downturn of the past thirty years, the restriction of overseas markets, consolidation of properties, fluctuating interest rates and the collapse of small business. Data on the attitudes of rural communities to health and health care are scarce. Some health promotion activities in rural Australia have focused on lifestyle modification, such as exercise, diet or smoking cessation programs.
