Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 May 30;18(1):670.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5511-9.

Longitudinal study of health, disease and access to care in rural Victoria: the Crossroads-II study: methods

Kristen M Glenister  1 , Lisa Bourke  2 , Leslie Bolitho  3 , Sian Wright  2 , Stuart Roberts  4 , William Kemp  4 , Leigh Rhode  5 , Ravi Bhat  2 , Sönke Tremper  6 , Dianna J Magliano  7 , Mike Morgan  8 , Rodrigo Mariño  8 , William Adam  2 , David Simmons  2   9
Affiliations

Longitudinal study of health, disease and access to care in rural Victoria: the Crossroads-II study: methods

Kristen M Glenister et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: High quality, contemporary data regarding patterns of chronic disease is essential for planning by health services, policy makers and local governments, but surprisingly scarce, including in rural Australia. This dearth of data occurs despite the recognition that rural Australians live with high rates of ill health, poor health behaviours and restricted access to health services. Crossroads-II is set in the Goulburn Valley, a rural region of Victoria, Australia 100-300 km north of metropolitan Melbourne. It is primarily an irrigated agricultural area. The aim of the study is to identify changes in the prevalence of key chronic health conditions including the extent of undiagnosed and undermanaged disease, and association with access to care, over a 15 year period.

Methods/design: This study is a 15 year follow up from the 2000-2003 Crossroads-I study (2376 households participated). Crossroads-II includes a similar face to face household survey of 3600 randomly selected households across four towns of sizes 6300 to 49,800 (50% sampled in the larger town with the remainder sampled equally from the three smaller towns). Self-reported health, health behaviour and health service usage information is verified and supplemented in a nested sub-study of 900 randomly selected adult participants in 'clinics' involving a range of additional questionnaires and biophysical measurements. The study is expected to run from October 2016 to December 2018.

Discussion: Besides providing epidemiological and health service utilisation information relating to different diseases and their risk factors in towns of different sizes, the results will be used to develop a composite measure of health service access. The importance of access to health services will be investigated by assessing the correlation of this measure with rates of undiagnosed and undermanaged disease at the mesh block level. Results will be shared with partner organisations to inform service planning and interventions to improve health outcomes for local people.

Keywords: Access; Chronic disease; Diabetes; Liver fibrosis; Mental health; Oral health; Rural health; Undermanaged; Undiagnosed.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethics approval was granted by the Goulburn Valley Health Ethics Committee (GVH 20/16) May 2016. Informed, written consent will be obtained from each household survey participant aged 16 years or older. Signed consent will be obtained from each clinic participant, and participants must be aged 18 years or older and not be pregnant. Separate consent forms will be used for the general clinic, the oral health assessment, the liver scan and for data linkage.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Formulation of a composite measure of access
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Household and clinic participant selection process
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. National Rural Health Alliance. The Determinants of Health in Rural and Remote Australia 2011. http://ruralhealth.org.au/sites/default/files/publications/cardiovascula.... Accessed 22 May 2018.
    1. National Rural Health Alliance. Cardiovascular Disease in Rural Australia 2015. http://ruralhealth.org.au/sites/default/files/publications/cardiovascula.... Accessed 22 May 2018.
    1. National Rural Health Alliance. Submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health Inquiry into Chronic Disease Prevention and Management in Primary Health Care 2015. https://www.aph.gov.au/chronicdisease. Accessed 22 May 2018.
    1. Harding JL, Shaw JE, Koshkina V, Magliano DJ. Cohort profile: the Australian and New Zealand diabetes and Cancer collaboration (ANZDCC) Aust Epidemiol. 2014;21(2):51–57.
    1. Harding JL, Shaw JE, Anstey KJ, Adams R, Balkau B, Brennan-Olsen SL, et al. Comparison of anthropometric measures as predictors of cancer incidence: a pooled collaborative analysis of 11 Australian cohorts. Int J Cancer. 2015;137(7):1699–1708. doi: 10.1002/ijc.29529. - DOI - PubMed