Rural versus urban differences in health dependence among the elderly population

This article examines data on rural versus urban differences in health dependency for a random sample of 600 western New York elderly people residing in a range of community settings from farm areas to a metropolitan central city. Data were collected via personal interviews, and health dependency was operationalized as an index composed of nine criterion measures. The nonmetropolitan elderly population is found to be less health dependent as are elderly persons who are younger, white, married, and have higher incomes. However, the rural/urban variable is not a significant predictor of health dependency when included in a multiple-regression analysis. These findings do not support the rural elderly health disadvantage argument and serve to illustrate some of the shortcomings of existing research on this topic.