A recent study led by Beth Prusaczyk, PhD, MSW, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Medicine & Geriatrics, looks at how barriers to healthcare social service utilization increases for rural area-based older adults who use drugs.
The study titled “Barriers to Healthcare and Social Service Utilization Among Rural Older Adults Who Use Drugs” was published in the Journal of Applied Gerontology.
“The article discussed our findings that older adults residing in rural areas who use drugs experienced significant barriers to healthcare utilization,” Dr. Prusaczyk shares. “Those who had experienced homelessness or were uninsured experienced more barriers than their counterparts and barriers decreased as age increased.”