Study Reveals Different Health Impacts of Living in Rural and Urban Areas
Despite the often-held image of clean air, fresh food, and physical activity in rural areas, a recent article in the Wall Street Journal notes that Americans who reside in cities tend to live longer, healthier lives than those in rural areas, according to a study. Among the specific findings, city-dwellers rate their own health more highly and are less likely to die prematurely than those living in rural areas.
Both urban and rural areas have positive and negative health trends, though. For example, obesity appears to be more prevalent in rural areas, with 55% of rural children ages 2 to 19 categorized as obese or overweight, compared to 45% of urban kids, according to the article. On the other hand, urban dwellers tend to have more low-birthweight babies than those in the rural areas, and children in rural areas tend to have less asthma and fewer allergies and autoimmune disorders than urban children.
According to data recently added to kidsdata.org, of the 10 million kids ages 0-17 in California, 92% (about 8.7 million) lived in urban areas in 2005-2009, while about 8% (nearly 750K) lived in rural areas (as defined using the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2009 American Community Survey definition).
Tags: Child Health Issues, New Data
Posted by kidsdata.org
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