Volume twenty-two, Issue 1

Indigenous cultural identity has been suppressed by the conventions of academic publishing. This sees author and subject credibility resting on Western views of provenance, including institutional affiliation, college membership, educational qualifications and disciplinary background. This research colonialism reflects a power imbalance that must end. In this Editorial, three rural health research journals jointly announce their commitment to 'nothing about Indigenous Peoples, without Indigenous Peoples'. Articles submitted about any Indigenous community must have an Indigenous author or provide evidence of participatory engagement with the Indigenous communities.

Evidence suggests people living with Parkinson disease benefit from coordinated health care provided by a team of specialists. People who live in rural areas face additional challenges in accessing this care. This study tested the feasibility of providing a coordinated, multidisciplinary telehealth program to people with Parkinson disease living in rural areas of the USA.

Within an Australian health context, the fundamental diagnostic tool used by medical staff is the biomedical interview or history taking, which is based on a battery of direct questions. Similarly, many health professionals rely on patient questions to prompt the sharing of information, or to make them aware of gaps in communication. This is problematic for many First Nations peoples, including Yolηu (First Nations people of North-East Arnhem Land), who are culturally less inclined to use direct questioning as it is deemed impolite within their cultural context. This study addresses an important research gap by exploring the experiences and perspectives related to the use of questions in clinical interactions with one cultural group, speakers of Yolηu languages from East Arnhem Land. Potential strategies to overcome any identified communication barriers that questions pose are also explored.

Lack of awareness about diabetes has been linked with a high prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes and previous research has identified poor awareness of diabetes in several low and middle-income countries. India has the second highest prevalence of diabetes globally. This study reports on awareness of type 2 diabetes and how sociodemographic factors influence diabetes knowledge in a rural population of Tamil Nadu, India.

Low- and middle-income countries often face the issue of unequal distribution of healthcare services and human resources between rural and urban areas. Globally, there are many factors that negatively affect the willingness of physicians to work in remote and rural areas, including low wages, poor living conditions, poorer and sicker patients, suboptimal equipment and supplies, and a lack of quality infrastructure and transportation. This study explores the perceptions of barriers and facilitators of medical entrepreneurship and the impact of medical entrepreneurship on the served communities among the owners of private medical practices in rural and semirural areas of Armenia.

Chronic non-communicable diseases are one of the biggest public health problems worldwide. In Brazil, the population is aging and these diseases are prevalent in 70% of elderly people. Many diseases that affect the osteoarticular system cause chronic pain. This study reports on the prevalence and associated factors of self-reported chronic lower back pain in elderly people living in rural riverside areas in the Amazon.

For rural and remote clinicians, quality education is often difficult to access owing to geographic isolation, travel, time, expense constraints and lack of an onsite educator. This integrative review investigates the telehealth education available to rural practitioners, evaluates current telehealth education models, establishes the quality of education provided through telehealth and presents recommendations for supporting and developing an education model for rural and remote health practitioners through telehealth.

What is known about Primary Health Care (PHC) in the Amazon? Health studies in the Amazon often focus on diseases and infections in the region, with few studies addressing health organisations and services. This scoping review explored the PHC implementations and their results in areas outside the urban centres in the nine Amazonian countries.

Gastroschisis, a birth defect of the abdominal wall in which the baby's intestines are found outside of the baby's body, is one of the most common congenital abdominal wall defects. Although a survival rate of up to 90% is now achievable in many settings, management remains a challenge in Papua New Guinea, where there are only 0.7 doctors and 5 nurses per 10,000 people. This Clinical Case Report describes the care of a preterm male baby born with gastroschisis in Papua New Guinea.

Training healthcare workers is essential for Vanuatu, a Western Pacific Island nation, where the current ratio of healthcare workers is well below the WHO recommendations. In addition, the preparation of a highly skilled workforce has been shown to be essential to high quality patient care. Research evidence has consistently shown that nurses educated by bachelor degree improve patient health outcomes and reduce hospital length of stay. This Project Report describes the development and implementation of a new Bachelor of Nursing degree to provide a skilled, safe nursing workforce for the provision of health care to the people of Vanuatu.

This Project Report describes the creation of pilot program aimed at creating culturally responsive end-of-life (EOL) planning in American Indian and Alaska Native communities and offers suggestions for the development of toolkits on EOL planning with Indigenous communities.

A clinical case report published in Rural and Remote Health in 2020 reported introducing an oral, centrally acting, alpha agonist sedative to the prescribed secondary prophylaxis (SP) regimen of IM penicillin for each of three Aboriginal children previously diagnosed with acute rheumatic fever (ARF). The living environments of the three children increased their risk for repeat group A Streptococcus infections and subsequent recurrences of ARF. The authors of this Comment find the clinical case report perpetuates a troubling tone about this singular priority for SP and present alternative perspectives and initiatives for consideration.