Development of the Rural-Urban Demand Indicator (RUDI)

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Health Economics
• Sociology

Background:

• Measuring demand for health services is complex, requiring nuanced indicators.
• Existing measures may not adequately capture the interplay of demographic and economic factors influencing health service utilization.
• Microeconomic theory suggests health is produced within the family, influencing demand for related services.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Rural-Urban Demand Indicator (RUDI), a novel multivariate measure for assessing health service demand.
• To establish RUDI's utility in health-related research and policy analysis.
• To validate RUDI using established psychometric principles.

Main Methods:

• Development of RUDI, a composite index incorporating demographics (DEMOS) and economic well-being (EWB).
• Utilized 1990 census data for factor development and validation.
• Employed established validity analyses, including known-groups, convergent, factorial, and predictive validity.

Main Results:

• The RUDI measure effectively ranks counties based on population and purchasing power.
• DEMOS and EWB collectively explained 66.2% of the variance in the 1990 census data.
• Multiple validity analyses provided strong evidence supporting RUDI's reliability and accuracy.

Conclusions:

• RUDI offers a robust and validated method for quantifying health service demand across diverse populations.
• The indicator's foundation in microeconomic theory provides a strong theoretical basis for its application.
• RUDI is suitable for a wide range of health research and policy applications, particularly in understanding rural-urban disparities.