Characteristics of place and the rural disadvantage in deaths from highly preventable causes

Adam R. Roth, Justin T. Denney, Solmaz Amiri and Ofer Amram

Social Science & Medicine, 2020, vol. 245, issue C

Abstract: Extensive research has documented higher mortality in rural parts of the United States compared to urban areas. Much of this work focuses on aggregate rates, documenting a rural mortality penalty that has been increasing over the last three decades. Advances in place-based analyses suggest the importance of community resources for individual mortality but have largely focused on urban spaces. We advance knowledge on rural-urban mortality disparities by focusing on differences for highly preventable causes of death. Using unique geocoded mortality records from Washington state, we match individual-level attributes with area-level measures of socioeconomic conditions to examine whether characteristics of place elucidate the rural mortality penalty. We find that rural decedents have greater odds of dying from highly preventable causes compared to their urban counterparts. Place-based socioeconomic measures, meanwhile, independently associate with the odds of dying from highly preventable causes. However, we find no evidence that the relationship between socioeconomic conditions and highly preventable death varies across geographic contexts.

Keywords: United States; Mortality; Rural; Place; Socioeconomic conditions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953619306847
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:245:y:2020:i:c:s0277953619306847

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112689

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().