Healthcare Access Challenges and Facilitators for Back Pain Across the Rural-Urban Continuum in Saskatchewan, Canada: Cross-Sectional Results From a Provincial-Wide Telephone Survey.

Background

Chronic back pain is a common musculoskeletal disorder, disproportionately affecting rural and Indigenous people. Saskatchewan has a relatively high proportion of rural and Indigenous residents; therefore, understanding barriers and facilitators to accessing healthcare are needed to improve healthcare service delivery.

Methods

A provincial-wide telephone survey explored experiences and perceived healthcare access barriers and facilitators among 384 Saskatchewan residents who experienced chronic low back pain. Chi-squared tests were performed to determine if people who lived in urban versus rural areas differed in the proportion who had accessed services from various healthcare practitioners.

Results

Of 384 residents surveyed, 234 (60.9%) reported living in a rural location; 21 (5.5%) identified as Indigenous. Wait times (47%), cost (40%), travel (39%), and not knowing how to seek help (37%) were the most common barriers for Saskatchewan residents seeking care, with travel being the only barrier that was significantly different between rural and urban respondents (

Conclusions

Rural, urban, Indigenous, and non-Indigenous people report overlapping and unique barriers and facilitators to accessing care for chronic low back pain. Understanding perceived access experiences will assist in developing more effective care models for specific communities or regions.

Informations de copyright

© The Author(s) 2023.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.