Rural Demographics Racial/Ethnic Diversification in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Population Change in the United States: Implications for Health Care Provision in Rural America

Abstract

The diversification of the rural population of the United States provides substantial challenges to the current and to future health care systems in rural areas. Because of a variety of historical, discriminatory, and other factors, minority populations have had lower levels of access to health care in rural as well as urban areas and higher rates of both mortality and morbidity than nonminority populations. Although minority health issues have often been seen as primarily urban issues, this article demonstrates that minority population growth has become a major component of total population growth in rural areas in the past several decades (accounting for nearly 62% of the net growth in the nonmetropolitan population of the United States in the 1980s and for nearly 42% in the 1990s), that future US population growth is likely to be largely a product of minority population growth (nearly 89% of US net population growth from 2000 to 2100 is projected to be due to minority population growth), and that the incidence of diseases and disorders in the US population will come to increasingly involve minority populations (by 2050 roughly 43% of all disease/disorder incidences would involve minority population members). The growth of younger minority populations with disproportionately impoverished socioeconomic characteristics will pose challenges for rural areas and health care systems, which also are likely to face health issues created by disproportionately older populations.

Individual Differences in Morphine and Butorphanol Analgesia: A Laboratory Pain Study

“…Given the increasing ethnic and racial diversity in the United States, understanding the association of these variables with opioid analgesia is particularly important. By 2050, 47% of the U.S. population will be represented by minority groups with 88.6% of the population growth by 2100 attributable to non‐Anglo individuals [37,38]. Ethnic/racial disparity in pharmacological management of pain is prevalent in the literature [39–43].…”

Family systems associations with obesogenic behaviors among rural Latino and White families

“…45 Despite historic racial and ethnic homogeneity, population growth in many rural communities since the 1980s can largely be attributed to increasing minority inhabitants. 46 Despite disproportionate economic disparities compared to White and African-American counterparts, immigrant families from Latin American countries have increasingly moved to rural Midwestern communities. 42,46 Though both White and Latino families may share rural food environments, cultural understanding and immigration may influence obesogenic behaviors.…”