Rural women’s health: A research agenda for the future

Abstract

The interrelationship between mental and physical health, and between mental health and behavioral health, links closely to the overall health of communities: in this regard, the health of rural America is at risk. Rural residents have higher rates of chronic illness, life-threatening medical conditions (such as motor vehicle accidents), greater environmental hazards, and increased overall age-adjusted mortality ( Braden and Beauregard 1994 Braden J. Beauregard K. Health status and access to care of rural and urban populations. National Medical Expenditure Survey Research Findings 18. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, MD1994 Google Scholar ). Mental health issues, and medical–psychiatric comorbidities are among the most prominent health issues of rural residents ( Braden and Beauregard 1994 Braden J. Beauregard K. Health status and access to care of rural and urban populations. National Medical Expenditure Survey Research Findings 18. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, MD1994 Google Scholar ; Wagenfeld et al., 1993; Robertson et al 1997 Robertson E.B. Sloboda Z. Boyd G.M. Beatty L. Kozel N.J. Rural substance abuse State of knowledge and Issues. National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, Rockville, MD1997: 168 Google Scholar ). At least 15 million rural residents, women and men, suffer with significant mental illness, substance abuse/dependence, and medical–psychiatric comorbidities (Wagenfeld et al., 1993). Finding solutions to the difficulty of providing mental health services for rural populations, preventing comorbidity, disability and other consequences of mental illness is a significant rural—and national—policy need.