Health-Related Quality of Life of Rural Clients Seeking Telepsychology Services

摘要

Over 3.8 million of the 60 million rural United States residents live in Texas, which has more rural residents than any state in the country [1]. Approximately one in four rural residents has a mental illness or substance abuse problem [2]. However, the resources available to individuals living in rural areas are not equivalent to those available to their urban counterparts due to barriers such as lack of transportation, geographic isolation, low socioeconomic status, low educational attainment, and low rates of insurance coverage [3]. For instance, even though some mental health diagnoses occur at least as often in rural areas as in urban ones [4, 5], the negative impact of those diagnoses on health and quality of life maybe greater in rural areas because of the barriers to availability, accessibility, and perceived stigma of mental health care services [6]. Rural-urban health disparities have been reported in groups ranging from clergy [7] to veterans [8].