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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Urban/rural elderly health status differences
— the dichotomy reexamined | | Author(s) | W R Gillanders, Terry F Buss, C Richard Hofstetter |
| Journal title | Journal of Aging & Social Policy, vol 8, no 4, 1996 |
| Pages | pp 7-24 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Health [elderly] ; Urban areas ; Rural areas ; Neighbourhoods, communities etc ; Comparison ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Health policy research analyses urban/rural differences as a simple dichotomy. Research characterises rural older people as having higher incidences of sickness, dysfunction, disability, restricted mobility, and acute and chronic conditions than their urban counterparts. However, population density as a dichotomy may also obscure rural, urban, or rural/urban differences. Interviews measuring health status were conducted with a representative sample of 2,300 older people in six north-eastern Ohio counties constituting an urban/rural continuum. On medical condition, use of medical aids and symptoms, health status improved significantly moving from rural to urban, but correlations were small. Using dichotomies, the urban old reported fewer medical conditions and symptoms; but four other health-status variables revealed no significant association and results differed depending on how dichotomies were defined. When individual communities were compared, few urban/rural patterns emerged. Controlling for demographics did not change interpretations. The findings question blanket assertions about urban/rural health status differences, suggesting that researchers need to verify differences through community-based research. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980513225 A |
| Classmark | CC: RK: RL: RH: 48: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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