ACCESS TO HEALTH INFORMATION IN RURAL SETTINGS – THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE LIBRARY’S LAW NO. 334/2002 IN TRANSYLVANIA, ROMANIA

The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which the Law no. 334/2002 is implemented in Romania, focusing on the main points which could facilitate the access to health information in rural Transylvania. It pursues a crosssectional design, with a quantitative strategy of inquiry. The study was conducted in 12 counties in Transylvania, Romania on a representative strati ed random sample of 216 communes. A policy analysis framework was created using a 13 dichotomous items chart, operationalized from the provisions of the law, and calculated on the basis of one or multiple variables in the dataset. From the total of 212 communes in the sample, 19 of them (9%), distributed over 9 counties, did not have a functioning public library at the time of the interview. Only four of the locations included in the study complied with at least 10 legal provisions out of the 13 analyzed, while none complied with all provisions analyzed. Results showed that the policy is implemented at varying degrees in rural Transylvania, but a tendency towards non-compliance is observed, which would constitute a strong argument for including developing a comprehensive intervention with a public policy component in enhancing access to health information.