Another Mortality Penalty for Rural Populations: Covid 19?

ABSTRACT

There is a gap in mortality between rural and urban people. This has been referred to as the rural mortality penalty. There are more deaths in five major areas among rural than urban populations. Data are now emerging that indicate rural Americans are in the unenviable position of being more likely to have died from COVID-19 than those in urban areas. Although COVID was initially seen more frequently and was the cause of more deaths in urban than rural areas;by Aug 1, 2020 the mortality rates were equal. Rural mortalities became higher than urban in all but three reporting weeks thereafter. In this data, rural was defined using Office of Management and Budget, 2013 criteria for counties outside of a metropolitan statistical area. The largest difference in rural/urban COVID mortality, occurred Dec 2020;rural 8.29 vs. urban 4.79, per 100,000 per week. Since Feb 2022, mortality rates have declined in rural and metropolitan areas. Nurse scientists focused on rural health should delve into the problem of higher crude COVID mortality rates among rural dwellers. They need to redouble efforts toward vaccination and education on mitigating methods and treatments.