Rural Americans Living Shorter Lives Than Urban Americans, Study Finds

The life expectancy of rural Americans is less than their urban counterparts, despite efforts to reduce health inequalities, and the gap continues to grow, according to a new study in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.

Over a 40-year period, rural Americans have seen smaller gains in overall life expectancy than Americans living in urban areas.

"In fact, disparities have been increasing over the past two decades as opposed to the last four," said the study's lead author Gopal K. Singh of the US Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

Singh added that this study is one of the first to look at how disparities in life expectancy have changed over time.

The researchers found that rural Americans have a higher risk of mortality from major chronic conditions and injuries, marked by inconsistency in urban versus rural life expectancies.

The rural-urban life expectancy gap widened from 0.4 years in 1969 to 1971 to 2.0 years in 2005 to 2009.

The reasons why could be multitudinous, Singh said.

"When compared to urban areas, rural areas have higher rates of both smoking and lung cancer, along with obesity, yet reduced access to health care services. Additionally, rural residents have a lower median family income, higher poverty rate and fewer have college degrees," he said.

The majority of Americans - 83 percent - live in urban areas, versus the 17 percent of Americans living in rural areas.

"There's always a temptation to take public health resources away from rural areas and focus on where people actively live, which would reduce the national disease burden but cause even greater rural-urban disparities in health and life expectancy," Singh said.

Public health specialist Steven P. Wallace, the associate director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, noted that overall American life expectancy has increase over time, but the disparities between rural and urban public health have not been at the forefront of the conversation.

Wallace said that rural Americans face many of the same health challenges as inner city Americans.

"These include safety, getting enough physical activity and even getting good nutrition - in spite of all the food growing around many of them - the more rural the location, the more difficult it often is," Wallace said. "Additionally, young adults have migrated from rural farming areas, leaving people with the lowest incomes and the least opportunity - both factors correlate strongly with life expectancy."