Answer to Question 1
A
Outcomes research is a priority in health care research today. Meeting outcomes demonstrates effective and accountable practice and, in fact, is a required element of research.
Using standards of care may improve cost effectiveness of therapies, but determining this is not as important as determining whether care meets stated outcomes.
Local standards of care should, for the most part, be reflective of national standards.
Health disparities are important, especially as addressed in Healthy People 2010, but determining whether these had been addressed would be a form of outcomes research, which is too narrow in scope to be the correct answer.
Answer to Question 2
A
Many governmental agencies use different definitions of rural. In this country, there are more than 15 official definitions of rural.
Although people may have different ideas of what the word rural means, this is not the reason defining it is difficult.
There is a need and an interest in defining the rural population.