November 7, 2023- According to a 2020 presidential advisory from the American Heart Association, people who live in rural communities live three fewer years than people in urban areas and death rates from heart disease and stroke are noticeably higher among people who live in rural versus metropolitan and urban areas of the country.
According to data reported in the Call to Action: Rural Health: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association, people living in rural parts of the U.S. are 40% more likely to develop heart disease and have a 30% higher risk of stroke than people who live in urban areas. Unique health challenges related to individual risk factors, social determinants of health and lack of access to health care drive these disparities.
The advisory notes that some of the factors that attribute to poor health among people in rural areas include:
- Physical access to health care, including clinical and mental health care providers, is often difficult in rural areas due to geographical terrain and a lack of local public transportation.
- Health behaviors that increase cardiovascular risks, such as tobacco use and lack of physical activity, are more common among rural populations, as is poorer mental health.
- In recent years, the opioid crisis has contributed to soaring rates of drug use and overdose in rural communities, with opioid-related mortality substantially higher in some rural regions of the country compared to urban areas.
- Social determinants of health contribute to poor cardiovascular outcomes in rural populations as compared to urban populations. Income, education, employment, housing, transportation, food insecurity all contribute to one’s health – rural populations fare less well on average for all these indicators.
The American Heart Association is working to help increase healthy life expectancy in the rural U.S. by bringing awareness to hypertension prevention, improving access to care and addressing CPR training and cardiac response times in outlying communities. Telehealth and digitally enabled health care is leveraged for patients in communities with broadband, though technology is lagging in the most remote areas.