Older people who live in rural areas have a greater prevalence of obesity and food insecurity. More isolated in rural America, these older health citizens are at higher risk for diabetes, falls and heart disease, as well as lacking access to health care providers.
There are (at least) two prescriptions for improving health care for these older, rural-living Americans: getting them access to internet connections and broadband, and access to healthy well-priced food, according to The Health Status and Unique Health Challenges of Rural Older Adults in California, a Health Policy Brief published by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research in June 2011.
The UCLA team points out that urban and rural older people share some common characteristics that negatively impact health, including lack of access to (healthy) food retailers, parks, exercise facilities and health care providers. The first health impact of these access challenges is obesity, which contributes to heart disease, diabetes and disability especially for rural seniors. Rural seniors’ lack of sidewalks, street lights and exercise facilities exacerbates this.
Food insecurity, the UCLA team finds, stems from lack of sufficient income for healthy food, lack of transportation, and lack of local stores with affordable healthful food.
The rates of diabetes among older rural Americans is high, at one in six older adults. In rural areas appropriate diabetes care can be challenging: transportation limitations, long geographic distances to provider offices, and financial barriers exacerbate diabetic conditions for many rural seniors, leading to greater morbidity and mortality rates.
Methodology: the UCLA team analyzed data from the 2007 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS 2007).
Health Populi’s Hot Points: First, to the issue of access to healthy, affordable food: the UCLA team talks about the concept of “food deserts,” which has been largely focused on urban centers. However, rural areas can also be food deserts, with few stores that stock fresh, healthy food. Rural grocers have higher operating costs per square foot, which prevents retailers from establishing outlets in these geographies. UCLA notes that there are many Federal food programs that could deal with this issue — from the Small Business Innovation Research program to Rural Business Enterprise grants. These agencies, and the grocery industry, could come together in a private/public partnership to deal with the rural food desert challenge. I also note that Walmart, which often locates in exurbs between suburbs and rural areas, has a role to play to fill this gap, especially with their promise of delivering healthier food to consumers (discussed in Health Populi here).
The FCC published its seminal Broadband Report over one year ago, and its long chapter on health care continues to be most relevant. Its recommendations should be implemented to address rural health citizens’ needs. Access to broadband is indeed a prescription for health access and self-efficacy for health consumers where they live and work outside of urban and suburban centers.
Although this report focuses on California, the implications are generalizable to the entire nation, and to older health citizens the world over.
Jane Sarasohn-Kahn is a health economist and management consultant that serves clients at the intersection of health and technology. 
[...] Populi’s Hot Points: I wrote about the importance of broadband and access to the internet for older adults – especially for those in rural areas — yesterday in Health Populi. This base [...]