Living in a rural environment has many advantages and is the only way of life for some but what impact does it have on residents health status?
The location you live and its impact on your health has been topical during the week. Listening to triple J Wednesday they had a forum on how you postcode may affect your health. Many of the listeners lived in the city and stated places with access to parks, beaches, good public transport all impacted positively on their health status. Places where people where reliant on using the car and the environment was not seen as being conducive to an outdoors lifestyle where seen as being adverse for health.
So how does living rurally impact our health. The callers to triple J had subjective analysis of their health and again subjectively many rural residents would feel the country environment enhanced their health rather than hindered.
Unfortunately the health statistics tell a very different story. Rural residents report lower levels of health in areas such as injury, depression and suicide, cardiovascular disease, cancer compared to those residing in non rural locations (Fagar et al 2000).
Why is this. The social determinants of health have an impact on these figures.The World Health Organisation (WHO, 2008) commission on the social determinants of heath states “avoidable health inequities arise because of circumstances in which people grow, live, work and age and the systems put in place to deal with illness”. These circumstances can be influenced by government policy, economic and social conditions (WHO, 2008). Social determinants of health relevant to a rural lifestyle are geographical and social isolation, aging population, culture of rural communities, lower socio economic status and environmental conditions.
The location you live and its impact on your health has been topical during the week. Listening to triple J Wednesday they had a forum on how you postcode may affect your health. Many of the listeners lived in the city and stated places with access to parks, beaches, good public transport all impacted positively on their health status. Places where people where reliant on using the car and the environment was not seen as being conducive to an outdoors lifestyle where seen as being adverse for health.
So how does living rurally impact our health. The callers to triple J had subjective analysis of their health and again subjectively many rural residents would feel the country environment enhanced their health rather than hindered.
Unfortunately the health statistics tell a very different story. Rural residents report lower levels of health in areas such as injury, depression and suicide, cardiovascular disease, cancer compared to those residing in non rural locations (Fagar et al 2000).
Why is this. The social determinants of health have an impact on these figures.The World Health Organisation (WHO, 2008) commission on the social determinants of heath states “avoidable health inequities arise because of circumstances in which people grow, live, work and age and the systems put in place to deal with illness”. These circumstances can be influenced by government policy, economic and social conditions (WHO, 2008). Social determinants of health relevant to a rural lifestyle are geographical and social isolation, aging population, culture of rural communities, lower socio economic status and environmental conditions.
In addressing health inequity we need to address these issues. We know access to services to being a strong influence on rural people health. Ways we are seeking to address this is providing services in rural communities (Hamilton, Horsham, Mount Gambier, Portland, Mildura) to decrease patients travel time and to also provide greater access to services through additional physicians.
The latter is a relevant point and we are very close to having another full time physician employed here. The benefits of this will be significant.
It is important to be aware of the social determinants of health in a rural context and to look at ways of addressing these issues.
Jessica
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