This thought-provoking monograph analyzes the longstanding political and economic structures underlying entrenched health inequities in rural areas worldwide. Bypassing familiar data on the subject, it critiques existing approaches to why core social determinants of health are underrepresented in rural communities, and synthesizes knowledge from health behaviors to spatial politics to make creative, equitable suggestions for intervention. The author reviews classic economic and current sociopolitical theory to pinpoint governments’ decision-making processes behind resource allocation as they translate into poor service access, service quality, and health outcomes. In reply, corrective policy measures are recommended to address these conditions at the root-cause level, in keeping with global goals of improved health for all. Included in the coverage: · Rural health disparities: the political economy. · Rural health disparities: the economic argument. · Social disorganization in rural communities. · Rural health disparities and social disorder: public policy responses. · The political economy: an era of institutional cynicism? With its forceful argument for dealing with a growing but often invisible crisis, Application of the Political Economy to Rural Health Disparities makes a significant text for graduate and undergraduate programs in public and international affairs, planning and public policy, public health, public administration, and economics. Public health and advocacy organizations will also benefit from the book’s vision.

This innovative resource offers a unique, multidisciplinary approach for the utilization of planning theory to eliminate health disparities in rural communities. The book provides tools in the public health, policy, and planning disciplines to help resolve significant differences in life expectancy and quality of life in these communities, concluding with a progressive vision for alleviating geographical health disparities on a local, national, and global scale. Chapters highlight models and approaches best suited to addressing this public health concern, suggesting action strategies focused around each of the three focus areas: 1. Public health: Elucidation of the contextual factors impacting the health of rural communities by: reporting statistical updates on a range of chronic and infectious diseases that disproportionately affect rural populations both globally and in the U.S.; providing discourse on the importance of addressing critical social determinants (global and national) that impede optimal health outcomes among rural populations; and, acknowledging the compositional factors of individuals who reside in rural spaces. 2. Public policy: Application of specific policy models to garner both public and political will towards sustainable policy change to improve healthy living in rural spaces. 3. Rural planning: Identification of national and international planning models that can be used to design strategic plans targeted to improve quality of life, create sustainable development, and establish economic well-being and growth in rural communities. Rural Health Disparities: Public Health, Policy, and Planning Approaches will find an engaged audience among non-profit organizations, planners, public health practitioners, policy analysts, and public interest groups, as well as rural health advocates and students enrolled in planning, public policy, and/or public health courses.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Rural counties make up about 80 percent of the land area of the United States, but they contain less than 20 percent of the U.S. population. The relative sparseness of the population in rural areas is one of many factors that influence the health and well-being of rural Americans. Rural areas have histories, economies, and cultures that differ from those of cities and from one rural area to another. Understanding these differences is critical to taking steps to improve health and well-being in rural areas and to reduce health disparities among rural populations. To explore the impacts of economic, demographic, and social issues in rural communities and to learn about asset-based approaches to addressing the associated challenges, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop on June 13, 2017. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The field of social inequalities in health continues its vigorous growth in the early years of the 21st century. This volume, following in the footsteps of Vicente Navarro's edited collection The Political Economy of Social Inequalities, is a compilation of recent contributions to the areas of social epidemiology, health disparities, health economics, and health services research. The overarching theme is to describe and explain the evergrowing health inequalities across social class, race, and gender, as well as neighborhood, city, region, country, and continent. The approach of this book is distinctly multi-, trans-, and interdisciplinary: the fields of public health, population health, epidemiology, economics, sociology, political science, philosophy, medicine, and history are all represented here.

"Rural counties make up about 80 percent of the land area of the United States, but they contain less than 20 percent of the U.S. population. The relative sparseness of the population in rural areas is one of many factors that influence the health and well-being of rural Americans. Rural areas have histories, economies, and cultures that differ from those of cities and from one rural area to another. Understanding these differences is critical to taking steps to improve health and well-being in rural areas and to reduce health disparities among rural populations. To explore the impacts of economic, demographic, and social issues in rural communities and to learn about asset-based approaches to addressing the associated challenges, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop on June 13, 2017. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop"--Publisher's description.

The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.