Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Sep;35(4):460-470.
doi: 10.1111/jrh.12338. Epub 2018 Nov 22.

Transitory and Enduring Disability Among Urban and Rural People

Rayna Sage  1 , Bryce Ward  1 , Andrew Myers  1 , Craig Ravesloot  1
Affiliations

Transitory and Enduring Disability Among Urban and Rural People

Rayna Sage et al. J Rural Health. 2019 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Disabilities are not evenly distributed across geography or age, yet few studies on disability have considered these factors. The purpose of this study was to explore rural-urban differences in disability rates, particularly related to gender and race, and what other rural-urban disparities help explain these differences.

Methods: Utilizing the 2008-2016 Current Population Survey (CPS), we first examined rural and urban disability trends by gender and race, estimating means and rural-urban percentage differences for men and women by race and conducting t test analysis to test group differences by age cohort (eg, comparing white, non-Hispanic, rural 15- to 24-year-old women to white, non-Hispanic, urban 15- to 24-year-old women). We then conducted a logistic regression to explore whether or not the effects of rurality on disability rates could be explained by rural-urban differences in demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.

Results: Descriptively, rural people report disability at higher rates than urban people across nearly all age category, gender, and racial combinations. These differences are more pronounced for nonwhite respondents in middle to older age categories. Additionally, while some of the rural disability disparity can be explained by adding demographic and socioeconomic variables to the logistic regression model, the effect of rurality remains significant.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that when researchers, policy makers, and service providers are addressing rural and urban differences in health and well-being, self-reported disability is another factor to consider. Future work should be mindful of how disability and space intersect with gender and race, creating significant disparities for people of color in rural places.

Keywords: Current Population Survey; disability; racial disparities; rural-urban disparities.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Matthews KA, Croft JB, Liu Y, et al. Health-related behaviors by urban-rural county classification-United States, 2013. Morb Mortal Wkly Rep Surveill Summ Wash DC 2002. 2017;66(5):1-8. doi:10.15585/mmwr.ss6605a1
    1. Bolin JN, Bellamy GR, Ferdinand AO, et al. Rural healthy people 2020: new decade, same challenges. J Rural Health. 2015;31(3):326-333. https://doi.org/10.1111/jrh.12116
    1. Cohen SA, Cook SK, Sando TA, Sabik NJ. What aspects of rural life contribute to rural-urban health disparities in older adults? Evidence from a national survey. J Rural Health. 2018;34(3):293-303. https://doi.org/10.1111/jrh.12287
    1. Lee M, Singlemann J. Place and race: health of African Americans in nonmetropolitan areas. In Glasgow N, Berry EH, eds. Rural Aging in 21st Century America. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer; 2013:99-113. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5567-3
    1. von Reichert C, Greiman L, Myers A, Rural Institute, University of Montana. The geography of disability in America: on rural-urban differences in impairment rates. Indep Living Community Particip. 2014; 7. Available at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/ruralinst_independent_living_community_part.... Accessed November 4, 2018.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources