A decade of rural ageing research in the Australasian Journal on Ageing

Over a decade ago, Davis and Bartlett¹ published a seminal review on healthy ageing in rural Australia in the Australasian Journal on Ageing (AJA). This paper identified a series of issues and challenges associated with maintaining health in rural settings in older age. These encompassed challenges associated with rural living, social capital and social infrastructure, and healthy ageing and health care (see Table 1). In the context of contemporary aged care reforms, including an emphasis on rural aged care provision within the recent Royal Commission into² members of the Australian Association of Gerontology's Regional, Rural and Remote Special Interest Group (RRRSIG) felt it pertinent to revisit the agenda set by the Davis and Bartlett review.¹ Since 2016, the RRRSIG has placed emphasis on interrogating issues associated with equitable aged care access for rural, regional and remote populations, with workshops held in 2017 and 2018 to examine rural issues.^{3, 4}