)In a week when national health care legislation is being substantially revised comes a report on health disparities between rural and urban Americans. While all-cause mortality has been declining, rural communities are seeing slower rates of improvement than urban communities, resulting in a substantial difference in mortality rates. The report focuses on 5 leading causes of death–heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury, chronic lower respiratory disease, and stroke–and discusses risk factors that differ between the two populations and how to mitigate those risks in rural settings. For example, the rate of tobacco smoking is higher in rural populations which is one reason why chronic lower respiratory disease is more prevalent. Reducing smoking through prevention and cessation should therefore help reduce the disparity in mortality rate, although achieving goals of reduced smoking is not trivial.
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