The Effects of Residential Advantages upon Rural Residents’ Self-Reported Physical Health and Emotional Well-being

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter assesses the effects of two rural community residential advantages – economic growth and availability of health services – upon residents’ health and emotional well-being.

Methodology/approach

A de facto experimental design divided communities into four analytical types based on their economic growth and health services. Household survey data were gathered via a drop-off/pickup procedure and 400 randomly selected households were surveyed in each location. Physical health was measured with a subset of items from the Medical Outcomes Study’s 36-item short form. A 10-item emotional well-being index was used. Beyond sociodemographic items, questions concerned household assets, medical problems, social supports, and community ties. Nested regression analyses were used to assess the effects of residential advantage upon health, net of potentially confounding factors.

Findings

Contrary to expectations, both residential advantages were necessary for improved health. The most important negative net effect on health was aging. Beyond household assets and community economic expansion, miles commuted to work was the next most important factor enhancing physical health. In all types of communities, residents’ emotional well-being scores were independent of age, but positively related to household income and religious involvement.

Research limitations/implications

Obviously the study is limited by geography and by the small number of communities in each residential type. While we could measure the effects of household members not being able to address all health needs, we could not assess the effects of such problems on anyone else in the households beyond the respondents. Our survey approach is also unable to address the effects of rural residents being unable to meet their health needs over time.

Originality/value of study

Ours is the first study that we know of applying a de facto natural experimental design to assess community residential effects. The interrelated effects of residential community resources for residents’ health suggests that more studies like this one should be done.

Citation

Grimm, J.W., Smith, D.C., Theodori, G.L. and Luloff, A.E. (2013), "The Effects of Residential Advantages upon Rural Residents’ Self-Reported Physical Health and Emotional Well-being", Social Determinants, Health Disparities and Linkages to Health and Health Care (Research in the Sociology of Health Care, Vol. 31), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 83-107. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0275-4959(2013)0000031007