arbiter
JournalsPricingAccount

Sharing Rural Health Perspectives: Early Findings From Australia’s First Rural Health Consumer Panel

Fiona Dangerfield et al.

Health and Social Care in the Community2026https://doi.org/10.1155/hsc/7046568article
AJG 2
Weight
0.37

What the paper says

People living in rural Australia experience poorer health outcomes and have reduced access to health services compared with people living in metropolitan areas. Despite guidelines supporting consumer involvement in research, there is low involvement of rural people in health and medical research. Australia’s first Rural Health Consumer Panel (RHCP), established in 2022, assists researchers in gaining a deeper understanding of rural and regional Australians’ perspectives on health and healthcare. Data are collected from panel members via annual online healthcare surveys and community‐based research. This paper presents preliminary findings from two cross‐sectional online health surveys (Registration Survey and Health Survey #1) including demographic characteristics and current health status of panel members, interactions with healthcare professionals in the past 12 months and consumers’ experience of accessing healthcare. Currently, the RHCP has over 190 members. Panel members are aged between 18 and 84 years and reside in a rural location across Australia. Findings reveal that 90% of panel members reported having a past or current health condition, with 77% of panel members reported having two or more health conditions. Panel members consulted a range of health providers in the past 12 months but often encountered barriers in accessing health services. For those who experienced barriers in accessing a health provider, cost, wait times and distance were most frequently reported. The results of the first two RHCP health surveys have highlighted important issues in rural healthcare, allowing us to identify research priorities and direction for further development of the panel. Findings will be used in collaboration with rural health consumers, rural health services, academic institutions and industry partners to drive improvements in healthcare policy and delivery.

1 citation

Open paper page →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1155/hsc/7046568

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{fiona2026,
  title        = {{Sharing Rural Health Perspectives: Early Findings From Australia’s First Rural Health Consumer Panel}},
  author       = {Fiona Dangerfield et al.},
  journal      = {Health and Social Care in the Community},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1155/hsc/7046568},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

Sharing Rural Health Perspectives: Early Findings From Australia’s First Rural Health Consumer Panel

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.37

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.16 × 0.4 = 0.06
M · momentum0.53 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.