Table 2 Description of purpose, types of factors included, and unit of analysis of rurality indices

Department of Primary Industries and Energy, Department of Human Services and Health, 1994 [24]

Rural, remote and metropolitan area (RRMA)

for general purpose

categorical

geographical jurisdiction: Statistical Local Area

consensus of a working group

Weinert et al., 1995 [25]

MSU rurality index

for health care policy and research

continuous

individual

literature review and availability of the data

Leduc, 1997 [26]

General Practice Rurality Index (GPRI)

for health care policy and research

continuous

health care institution: general practice

literature review

Department of Health and Aged Care, 2001 [27]

Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA)

for general purpose

continuous

geographical jurisdiction: populated location

GIS network analysis

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Canberra, 2004 [28]

Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC)

for general purpose

continuous

geographical jurisdiction: Statistical Local Area

An enhanced measure of previous remoteness index, ARIA+

Swan et al., 2008 [29]

Clinical peripherality indicator

for health care policy and research

continuous

health care institution: general practice

factor analysis

Kralj, 2008 [11]

Rurality Index for Ontario (RIO)

for health care policy and research

continuous

geographical jurisdiction: community

principal component analysis, maximum likelihood method

McGrail et al., 2009 [30]

Index of Rural Access

for health care policy and research

continuous

geographical jurisdiction: collection district

modified two-step floating catchment area method

Han et al., 2012 [31]

Rural PHCWA index

for health care policy and research

continuous

geographical jurisdiction: county

literature review

Humphreys et al., 2012 [13]

six-level geographical classification

for health care policy and research

categorical

geographical jurisdiction: city

Geo-coded data and the previous study

Steinhaeuser et al., 2014 [32]

modified RRS-Germany (mRRS-G)

for health care policy and research

continuous

health care institution: general practice

translation and adaptation of the previous rurality index, RRS

Mao et al., 2015 [33]

Individual-based rurality and well-being measures

for health care policy and research

continuous

individual

active space approach

Zhu et al., 2015 [34]

Rural taxonomy

for health care policy and research

categorical

geographical jurisdiction: primary care service area

cluster analysis

Inagami et al., 2016 [35]

IRR zip

for health care policy and research

continuous

geographical jurisdiction: zip-code level

modification of the previous rurality index, Index of Relative Rurality

Alasia et al., 2017 [36]

index of remoteness

for general purpose

continuous

geographical jurisdiction: census subdivision

gravity model

Calovi et al., 2018 [37]

spatial accessibility index

for health care policy and research

continuous

geographical jurisdiction: municipality

two-step floating catchment area method

Doogan et al., 2018 [38]

Isolation scale

for health care policy and research

continuous

geographical jurisdiction: census tract

literature review