Deaths From COVID‐19 in Rural, Micropolitan, and Metropolitan Areas: A County‐Level Comparison

Purpose The United States has experienced a surge of COVID‐19 cases and deaths. Regardless of the overall increase in the prevalence and mortality, there are disagreements about the consequences of exposure and contracting COVID‐19, specifically in rural areas. Rural areas have inherent characterist...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of rural health Vol. 37; no. 1; pp. 124 - 132
Main Authors: Karim, Saleema A., Chen, Hsueh‐Fen
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 2021
Subjects:
Age Factors
Contracting
Coronavirus infections
Counties
COVID-19
COVID-19 - mortality
data collection
Deaths
demographic statistics
Demographics
Demography
Disease control
Epidemiology
Fatalities
geographical variation
Geography
Health Services Accessibility - statistics & numerical data
Hospital Bed Capacity - statistics & numerical data
Humans
Metropolitan areas
Mortality
Mortality rates
pandemic
Pandemics
Prevalence
Prevention
Residents
rural
Rural areas
Rural communities
Rural geography
rural health
Rural Population - statistics & numerical data
Rural populations
Rural urban differences
SARS-CoV-2
Social interactions
Social isolation
Socioeconomic Factors
Spatial Analysis
States
United States
United States - epidemiology
Urban areas
Urban Population - statistics & numerical data
Vulnerability
United States
United States > US
COVID-19
mortality
geographical variation
rural
ISSN:0890-765X, 1748-0361, 1748-0361
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Purpose The United States has experienced a surge of COVID‐19 cases and deaths. Regardless of the overall increase in the prevalence and mortality, there are disagreements about the consequences of exposure and contracting COVID‐19, specifically in rural areas. Rural areas have inherent characteristics that increase their vulnerability to contracting COVID‐19. The objective of this study was to investigate the differences in death rates from COVID‐19 between urban and rural areas in the United States. Methods This study used county‐level data. The data set consisted of confirmed COVID‐19 cases and deaths along with county‐level demographics. The sample consisted of all counties in the 50 US states and DC. Counties were designated as metropolitan, micropolitan, and rural. A zero‐inflated negative binomial regression was used to estimate county‐level number of deaths conditional on contracting COVID‐19. The study focused on COVID‐19‐related mortality from February 10, 2020, to June 12, 2020. Findings After controlling for county‐level characteristics, the rate of COVID‐19 deaths was 70.3% (P < .001) for rural counties and 53.4% (P < .001) for micropolitan counties, both significantly lower than metropolitan counties during the study time period. Conclusion Over time, rural geography and social isolation may not provide sustainable protection to rural residents from the pandemic. The slow progression provides rural areas additional time and opportunity to learn from the experiences in urban areas that were most affected. Rural areas need to be proactive and develop prevention strategies and response plans to manage and control the spread of COVID‐19.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
ISSN:0890-765X
1748-0361
1748-0361
DOI:10.1111/jrh.12533