Rurality as a Root or Fundamental Social Determinant of Health

Abstract

lace matters; it contextualizes health. When examining the influence of ommunity, neighborhood, and social space, researchers from multiple isciplines found that geography matters when assessing health status, ealth service use, health service deficits, adequacy of health care, and ealth-related behaviors. Where people live, work, and play protects and romotes their health and/or contributes to the health risks they experince. Koh et al advocate that all individuals should have an equal pportunity to maximize their health. However, some might experience a ealth disparity because of where they live. Such disparities, though, are ot fixed. Once identified, changes to improve health outcomes and educe disparities are possible. A health disparity or health inequity refers to differences in health or ealth outcomes related to factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, ocioeconomic status, or sexual orientation. As government reports such s Healthy People 2020 advocate for the fundamental human justice of ddressing avoidable health-related inequities, it is important to recognize he extensive body of public health-related research associating place or eographic locale as a significant factor in identifying populations ulnerable to health disparities. Although there is long-standing awareess of the health inequities for people living in the inner city, there is an merging body of research acknowledging the importance of rurality in ocial epidemiology, as well as the vulnerability of this specific opulation.