Assessing Rural Populations’ Barriers to Mental Healthcare and Perceptions Towards Prescription Digital Therapeutics: A Cross-Sectional Survey - Frontiers
In the U.S., 23% of adults—nearly 60 million Americans—reported experiencing a mental illness in the past year, yet over half (54.7%) did not receive treatment (1, 2). Complex environmental and social factors contribute to this shortfall, and certain communities experience inequitable impacts (3). This includes the 20% of Americans living in rural areas, who often face gaping disparities in mental healthcare access stemming from a milieu of infrastructural and sociocultural factors (4–6). Sixty-five percent and 47% of rural counties lack a resident psychiatrist and psychologist, respectively, compared to 27% and 19% of metropolitan counties (7). Securing transportation to this physically distant care may be especially burdensome for those who lack public transit or depend on others for their transportation (8). Even telemedicine remains unfeasible for some rural areas, where broadband may be limited or entirely unavailable (9–12).