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Rural Health Disparities

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International Handbook of Rural Demography

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Population ((IHOP,volume 3))

Abstract

Rural-urban health disparities have been noted for a variety of mortality and morbidity conditions and are seen in the United States and internationally. Two conceptual arguments are often given to explain potential health disparities based on rural or urban residence, including composition arguments that focus on the characteristics of individuals in certain locations and contextual arguments that argue that characteristics of places themselves lead to potential disparities in health outcomes. This chapter first reviews literature on compositional and contextual explanations for health disparities in the United States and internationally. Next an empirical analysis of 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data for adults in the United States is provided that explores these two potential explanations in documenting rural-urban health disparities for several morbidity conditions. Policy makers interested in eliminating rural health disparities must acknowledge the complex interplay between compositional and contextual factors in influencing health outcomes for rural populations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    While the BRFSS uses metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) as their measure of rural or urban status, MSAs/non-MSAs and rural/urban designations are not interchangeable when discussing rural populations. MSAs refer to county designations based on size of place, while rural/urban designations are based on U.S. Census Bureau defined places. These terms are used interchangeably, although conceptually the two measures mean very different things and refer to different geographic units.

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  1. Department of Demography, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, 78207, USA

    P. Johnelle Sparks

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Correspondence to P. Johnelle Sparks .

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  1. , Sociology , Anthropology and Social Work, Kansas State University, Waters Hall 202D, Manhattan, 66506, Kansas, USA

    László J. Kulcsár

  2. , Community and Environmental Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Linden Drive 1450, Madison, 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    Katherine J. Curtis

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Sparks, P.J. (2012). Rural Health Disparities. In: Kulcsár, L., Curtis, K. (eds) International Handbook of Rural Demography. International Handbooks of Population, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1842-5_18

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