Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the importance of rural location in the likelihood of adolescent drunk driving and riding in a vehicle with a driver under the influence while controlling for a variety of student-, school-, and county-level factors.
Methods: Data from the 2013 Georgia Student Health Survey (GSHS) II (a statewide assessment of student health in public school students in Georgia) were analyzed using multilevel binary regressions to examine rural-urban differences in prevalence of driving under the influence (11 and 12 graders only; n = 114,907) and riding with a driver under the influence (9 -12 graders; n = 258,610), controlling for school-level race, gender, and income, in addition to county-level education level, unemployment, alcohol use, and smoking.
Findings: Across geographies, students were twice as likely to report riding with a driver under the influence (10.
Am J Health Behav
November 2017
Objectives: We explored the extent to which discrepancy between motivation for weight loss and exercise is related to obesity among rural patients with chronic disease, and identified the psychosocial correlates of this discrepancy.
Methods: 497 patients with diabetes and/or hypertension were recruited from a network of Federally Qualified Health Centers in the rural South and completed a battery of assessments.
Results: Most persons in the sample (83.
J Child Adolesc Subst Abuse
August 2016
The use of addictive substances by adolescents is a major public health concern; however, rural vs. urban variations are poorly understood. The purpose of the current study was to examine rural-urban differences in the prevalence of recent use of 11 substances in grades 6-12 in a statewide sample of students from the Georgia Student Health Survey II (n = 513,909).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRural Remote Health
December 2017
Introduction: Previous research has consistently demonstrated that, in comparison to their cisgender heterosexual counterparts, lesbians face a multitude of women's healthcare-related disparities. However, very little research has been conducted that takes an intersectionality approach to examining the potential influences of rural-urban location on the health-related needs and experiences of lesbians. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively compare rural and urban lesbians' access to women's health care, experiences with women's healthcare providers (WHCPs), and preventive behavior using a large, diverse sample of lesbians from across the USA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this paper was to (1) examine the rates of elevated depression symptoms among a sample of rural Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) patients with chronic disease and (2) determine if an inability to afford general prescription medications within the past 12 months is a significant predictor of depression symptoms among these patients. These data came from Project EDUCATE, an ongoing five-year study designed to be a large-scale, multifocal examination of the needs and experiences of rural FQHC patients with hypertension and/or diabetes. A total of 497 rural FQHC patients completed surveys (including a series of psychosocial questions, the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale) as part of phase one of the project; 438 of these with complete data are included in the current analytic sample.
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