Trends in lifespan variation across the spectrum of rural and urban places in the United States, 1990-2017

Benjamin H Walker; Dustin C Brown

doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2022.101213

Trends in lifespan variation across the spectrum of rural and urban places in the United States, 1990-2017

SSM Popul Health. 2022 Aug 22:19:101213. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2022.101213. eCollection 2022 Sep.

Authors

Benjamin H Walker¹, Dustin C Brown^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Population Health Science, John D. Bower School of Population Health, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA.
² Department of Sociology, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA.
³ Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA.

Abstract

Mortality disparities between urban and rural areas in the United States widened in recent decades as mortality improvements in rural areas slowed. Although the existence of a rural mortality penalty is well-documented, previous research in this area has focused almost exclusively on differences in average levels of mortality between rural and urban areas rather than differences in levels of lifespan variation within rural and urban areas. This oversight is important because monitoring trends in lifespan variation provides unique insights into levels of inequality in the age-at-death distribution within a population. Does the rural mortality penalty in life expectancy extend to lifespan variation? We used U.S. Multiple Cause of Death data files to measure life disparity at birth ( $e_{0}^{†}$ ) from 1990 to 2017. We found that the rural mortality penalty extends to lifespan variation as large metropolitan areas had greater improvements in life disparity than nonmetropolitan areas. Beginning around 2011, all areas began to show increased life disparity with the largest increases occurring in nonmetropolitan areas. Age decomposition results showed that the nonmetropolitan increases were due to rising working-age mortality. Greater variability in the age-at-death distribution represents an additional dimension of inequality for Americans living in rural places.

Keywords: Lifespan disparity; Lifespan variation; Mortality compression; Rural health; Rural mortality penalty.