Health and well-being of childbearing women in rural and urban contexts.
As part of the national focus on women's health issues, it is important to identify those health-related characteristics of rural women that distinguish them from women living in urban settings. The aim of this study was to compare rural and urban childbearing women on socioeconomic characteristics, perceived stress, health-related practices, illness symptoms, parenting confidence, and body weight. One hundred sixty-five midwestern women responded to a health survey sent to them six months after childbirth. Rural women were younger and less educationally and economically advantaged compared to urban women. Before adjusting for these differences, rural women were less self-actualized, more interpersonally isolated, and reported less healthy nutrition than urban women. These differences disappeared when socioeconomic differences were adjusted. Rural and urban mothers did not differ in most other areas, including perceived stress, parenting confidence, and body weight. Compared to national norms, the perceived stress levels of both rural and urban mothers were significantly higher than a probability sample of U.S. women. Findings support the role of socioeconomic factors as contributing to risk of poor health promotion among rural childbearing women.
School of Nursing, University of Texas-Austin 78701.
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001835:Body Weight; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D015146:Midwestern United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D012423:Rural Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014504:Urban Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016387:Women's Health