Which Definition of Rurality Should I Use?: The Relative Performance of 8 Federal Rural Definitions in Identifying Rural-Urban Disparities.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The federal government uses multiple definitions for identifying rural communities based on various geographies and different elements of rurality.

Objectives

The objectives of this study were to: (1) assess the degree to which rural definitions identify the same areas as rural; and (2) assess rural-urban disparities identified by each definition across socioeconomic, demographic, and health access and outcome measures.

Research design

We determined the rural status of each census tract and calculated the rural-urban disparity resulting from each definition, as well as across the number of definitions in which tracts were designated as rural (rurality agreement).

Subjects

The population in 72,506 census tracts.

Measures

We used 8 federal rural

SUBMITTER: Long JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8428861 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature