Yet, most rural areas with a lack of health resources need these services. The University of Arizona, Cooperative Extension Service, with the endorsement of the Arizona Medical Association, found an answer to this problem. The user dials the toll-free number and gives the operator a tape number, title, or subject of interest. The county of residence of the caller is requested before the tape is played. The system operates 12 hours a weekday and 5 hours each on Saturday and Sunday.
Women call three times more often than men.
Requests for the Spanish tapes are only one percent of the total, despite considerable promotion in Spanish. The most frequent requests are for tapes on weight loss, sex education, depression, drugs, herpes, chicken pox, and Valley Fever, a disease indigenous to the Southwest. The goals of Instant Health Info were to have users be more knowledgeable, be better able to discuss problems with health providers, reduce health and safety hazards, recognize early warning signs of illness, and be more self-sufficient in home care. Two weeks before the survey, an introductory letter describing the purpose of the evaluation was sent to potential respondents. Trained interviewers tried to contact each of the 1,253 individuals in the sample to first identify the purpose of the survey and then try to complete the survey.