Rural health care issues in the Lower Mississippi Delta: an agenda for the year 2000

The 214 counties bordering both sides of the Lower Mississippi Delta from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to New Orleans, Louisiana, currently represent one of the four major poverty regions in the United States. Despite the location of five major medical centers, the Lower Mississippi Delta continues to lag behind the rest of the country in important health indices. This paper presents comparative data on infant mortality rates and health care availability between the Lower Mississippi Delta and the rest of the nation. It also contains comparative data on the rural Lower Mississippi Delta and the rest of the rural U.S. Further comparisons of European and African-American infant mortality rates reveal necessary directions and important realities for future health efforts. Commission research, gathered in public hearings from the Delta, reveals a pattern of interrelated development factors that also seriously affect health care in rural Delta counties.