Around 15% of people in the United States live in rural areas, and for
good reasons: a lower cost of living, a slower pace, open space for
recreation, less crowding, more privacy, and being near family and friends.
There are also health challenges, and they compound.
What rural communities tend to have more of
- Higher poverty rates
- A higher percentage of older adults, who are more likely to have chronic
health problems - More residents without health insurance
- Less access to health care — clinics and hospitals may be far away
- Higher rates of certain substance use — cigarette smoking, and opioid
and methamphetamine misuse - Higher rates of chronic problems such as high blood pressure and obesity
- More exposure to environmental hazards, such as chemicals used in
farming
Read the list as a sequence rather than a set. More older adults with more
chronic conditions, fewer of them insured, further from a clinic — each item
makes the next one harder to deal with.
The solutions are local
What is striking about the remedies is that none of them is a national
programme:
| Telehealth | Clinics offering it for people far from specialists, or who cannot easily reach a provider's office |
| Local public health agencies | Working with their communities on healthy living — wellness and exercise classes, starting a farmers' market |
| Local government | Adding bike lanes and trails to encourage cycling and walking |
| Rural schools | Offering counselling and mental health services to students |
Three of those four are ordinary municipal decisions — a market, a bike lane,
a counsellor — and they are on this list because in a community where the
nearest hospital is an hour away, the health system that exists day to day is
the town itself.
Source: MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
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