Source: Liora Engel-Smith, NORTH CAROLINA HEALTH NEWS, 11/18/19


Spend any time talking about rural health and you’re bound to hear about divides, disparities and deserts. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found this litany of challenges amounts to higher rates of potentially preventable deaths in rural Americans under 80 as compared with their urban counterparts. The CDC studied potentially preventable deaths from 2010-2017 for five leading causes — cancer, chronic lung disease, stroke, heart disease and unintentional injuries, including fatal drug overdoses. The study, released earlier this month, is the second time the CDC used data to understand the health differences between rural and urban areas in the United States. The federal agency released a similar, but less detailed report in 2017.

For more of this story, click here.