CAPS affiliate Shannon M Monnat et al published an article discussing how policies differentially impact population health and aging in rural versus urban populations,
Danielle C Rhubart, PhD, Shannon M Monnat, PhD, Leif Jensen, PhD, Claire Pendergrast, MPH, The Unique Impacts of U.S. Social and Health Policies on Rural Population Health and Aging, Public Policy & Aging Report, Volume 31, Issue 1, 2021, Pages 24–29, https://doi.org/10.1093/ppar/praa034
Federal policies and programs are typically written with place-neutral intent or without considering how they might affect places differently depending on population compositions or geographic contexts. On average, rural areas are older, sicker, and poorer and have weaker health care infrastructures than urban areas (Jensen et al., 2020). Therefore, we should anticipate that place-neutral policies would impact health and aging differently in rural versus urban areas. Moreover, rural America is not homogenous, but demographically and economically diverse, with a variety of labor markets and social and health service contexts…