title: An individual-based rurality measure and its health application: A case study of Latino immigrants in North Florida, USA.
abstract: Rurality has been frequently noted by researchers as pathways to understand human health in rural and remote areas. Current measures of rurality are mostly oriented to places, not individuals, and have not accounted for individual mobility, thus inappropriate for studying health and well-being at an individual level. This research proposed a new concept of individual-based rurality by integrating personal activity spaces. A feasible method was developed to quantify individuals' rural experience using household travel surveys and geographic information systems (GIS). For illustration, the proposed method was applied to understand the well-being and social isolation among rural Latino immigrants, who had participated in a community-based participatory research (CBPR) study in North Florida, USA. The resulting individuals' rurality indices were paired with their scores of well-being and social isolation to identify potential associations. The correlation analysis showed that the proposed rurality can be related to the social isolation, mental and physical well-being of individuals in different gender groups, and hence could be a suitable tool to investigate rural health issues.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, University of Florida, 3141 Turlington Hall, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA. Electronic address: liangmao@ufl.edu.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, University of Florida, 1225 Center Drive, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA. Electronic address: jeannems@ufl.edu.
authors.forename: Jeanne-Marie R
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Stacciarini
authors.affiliation: Community Health Center of Waterbury, 51 North Elm ST, Waterbury, CT, 06702, USA. Electronic address: smithre@chc1.com.
authors.forename: Rebekah
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, 1225 Center Drive, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA. Electronic address: wiens@phhp.ufl.edu.
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wiens
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012423:Rural Health / Q000592:standards; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012934:Social Isolation / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Activity space; GIS; Health and well-being; Latino immigrant; Rural health; USA