Citation

Ucieklak-Jeż P, Bem A. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020; 17(2): e17020397.

Affiliation

Department of Corporate and Public Finance, Wrocław University of Economics and Business, 53-345 Wrocła, Poland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph17020397

PMID

31936149

Abstract

Rural areas, as well as urban ones, are not homogeneous in terms of social and economic conditions. Those surrounding large urban centers (suburban rural areas) act different roles than those located in remote areas. This study aims to measure the level of inequalities in social determinants of health (SDH) between two categories of rural areas. We pose the following research hypotheses: (hypothesis H1) rural areas in Poland are relatively homogenous in the context of SDH and (hypothesis H2) SDH affects life expectancies of rural residents. Based on data covering all rural territories, we found that rural areas in Poland are homogenous in SDH. We also find important determinants of health rooted in a demographic structure-the feminization index and a ratio of the working-age population. On the other hand, we cannot confirm the influence of commonly used SDH-GDP and unemployment rate.

Language: en

Keywords

HHI; concentration analysis; rural health inequalities; social determinants of health