Far From Home? Accessing Everyday Places in Rural and Urban Communities

Rural residents are believed to experience greater social isolation than their urban counterparts. This isolation is typically attributed to the structural conditions that distinguish rural communities from urban communities. In the present study, we direct attention to the everyday places that older adults visit across the rural-urban context and the implications this has for direct and indirect social exposure.

We leverage ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data from the Social Environment and Cognitive Health in Urban and Rural Areas study. Two hundred and forty-eight participants recorded 4,906 valid EMAs. We explore the probability of EMAs being recorded outside the home and how far each EMA was recorded from home based on driving distance and time.

There were no rural-urban differences in the probability of participants being away from home during their EMAs. However, rural participants were located farther from home than urban participants during their non-home EMAs. These latter differences were largely explained by trips to restaurants, stores, and healthcare facilities. There were no observed differences in the time separating participants from their workplaces, other people's homes, religious centers, or other outdoor spaces.

Although rural and urban older adults visit the same types of places at remarkably similar rates, rural residents face greater travel burdens when accessing commercial places (e.g., restaurants, stores, and healthcare facilities). These findings suggest that the rural disadvantage is concentrated in commercial activity and carries implications for the types of social exposures that residents are likely to encounter depending on where they live.