Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30225336›Full record

ArticleSSM - population health2018

Socioeconomic variables explain rural disparities in US mortality rates: Implications for rural health research and policy.

Alexander S Long, Alexandra L Hanlon, Karen L Pellegrin

Erratum issuedAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in SSM - population health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 76 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
76citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

76 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Observational
  5. Rurality and long-term outcomes after critical illness.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2026
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  13. Regional disparities in the care and outcomes of atrial fibrillation patients in a universal health care system: a population-based cohort study.Journal of interventional cardiac electrophysiology : an international journal of arrhythmias and pacing · 2025
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  14. Community readiness and feasibility of the Exercising TogetherJournal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2025
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  15. Assessing Measurement Invariance in Neighborhood Socioeconomic Environment Across Levels of Urbanicity.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2025
    Article
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  18. "It's not about me. It's about what's best for my community": Factors impacting COVID-19 vaccine uptake among Native Americans and Latinos from two agricultural communities.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2025
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

16 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Alexander S LongCenter for Rural Health Science, Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy, University of Hawaii at Hilo, 34 Rainbow Drive, Hilo, HI 96720, USA.
Alexandra L HanlonSchool of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Karen L PellegrinCenter for Rural Health Science, Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy, University of Hawaii at Hilo, 34 Rainbow Drive, Hilo, HI 96720, USA.

Funding

UH Hilo COP A&RP20GM103466 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA · PI HELEN C TURNER · 2012 to 2026
$60.3M
NIGMS NIH HHS P20 GM103466
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesRural disparities in age-adjusted mortality are growing in the United States. While socioeconomic variables have been found to explain significant variation in life expectancy across US counties, previous research has not examined the role of socioeconomic variables in explaining rural mortality disparities. The purpose of this study was to quantify the rural mortality disparity after controlling for socioeconomic variables.

methodsRecursive partitioning, or tree regression, was used to fit models predicting premature mortality across counties in the United States, adjusted for age, median income, and percent in poverty in 4 time periods (from 2004 to 2012) with and without inclusion of an urban-rural variable.

resultsWe found median income and percent in poverty explained about 50% of the variation in age-adjusted premature mortality rates across US counties in each of the four time periods. After controlling for these socioeconomic variables, rural mortality disparities largely disappeared, explaining less than 2% of the variance in premature mortality.

conclusionsAddressing poverty and other socioeconomic issues should be a priority to improve health in rural communities. Interventions designed to target social determinants of health in rural areas are needed to address the growing rural mortality disparity that is largely explained by measures of poverty and income. Researchers examining rural health disparities should routinely include socioeconomic variables in their analyses.

Indexed as

DisparitiesMortalityRuralSocial determinantsSocioeconomic statusUrban

Identifiers

PMID30225336
PMCPMC6138992

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.