Document Type
Capstone
Associated Faculty
Katherine Darling
Sponsoring Academic Department
Nursing
Publication Date
2025
Abstract/ Summary
Importance: A review of concepts and measures related to the barriers and burdens rural patients experience do to travel and transportation can inform evidence-based interventions to help communities address healthcare access gaps.
Objective: This rapid review of research literature identified peer-reviewed research conducted in the U.S. and Canada between 2020-2025 an analyzed how travel barriers were conceptualized and measured.
Review: A systematic search Titles & Abstracts in the PubMed database identified 184 studies that met inclusion criteria.
Findings: Less than half (41%) of included studies (N=184) we reviewed travel and transportation barriers in rural health consider patients’ experience or perspective. We analyzed these studies to identify multiple conceptual elements of travel burden: logistical strain, financial strain, transportation insecurity, travel stress, and community-level transportation disadvantage.
Conclusions: Though current research evidence has extensively documented patterns that link geographic accessibility and transportation barriers to multiple poor health outcomes, few studies consider the experiences of travel from the perspectives of rural patients and caregivers. Future research should address the complexities of how healthcare decision-making involves considerations of travel and transportation issues beyond measuring distance traveled in terms of miles or minutes.
Repository Citation
Dawson, Evelyn R., "Defining travel burden from patient perspectives: A rapid review of literature with implications for Maine" (2025). Non-Thesis Student Work. 96.
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/student_work/96
Version
other
CAPSTONE Poster
Included in
Rights Statement
