The Current Status of Urban-rural Differences in Psychiatric Disorder

The effects of social support, life events, and demographic factors on depression among Maori and Europeans in New Zealand rural, town, and urban environments

“…Of the 364 people contacted, 342 (94%) provided sufficient information for data analysis. Previous surveys in the United States (Bell et al, 1981;Brown & Prudo, 1981;Linn et al, 1989;Mueller, 1981;Neff et al, 1980;Neff & Husaini, 1987;Romans et al, 1992;Schwab et al, 1974) did not distinguish between town and rural samples in comparing rural with urban data. Because we were interested in rural, town, and urban differences, the proportions of the population for the first two areas in our samples were greater than the one for the city.…”

“…Research must also take into account the social contexts within which support and life events occur (Bell et al, 1982;Lakey et al, 1993;Monroe & Steiner, 1986;Oei & Zwart, 1990;Romans et al, 1992;Schuster et al, 1990;Thoits, 1982b). Depression may be different in urban than in rural environments, but any differences may depend on other factors such as demographic ones (Bell, et al, 1981;Brown & Prudo, 1981;Linn, Husaini, WhittenStovall, & Broomes, 1989;Mueller, 1981;Neff, Husaini, & McCorkel, 1980;Neff & Husaini, 1987;Romans et al, 1992;Schwab, Warheit, & Holzer, 1974;Webb, 1978). For example, epidemiological surveys of samples from the southeastern United States (Husaini et al, 1982;Linn et al, 1989;Neff & Husaini, 1987) showed more life change events and greater depression in rural than in urban samples, and greater depression among rural Blacks than rural Whites and urban Blacks.…”

Urbanicity, race, and psychological distress

“…Consistent urban-rural differences across all length of residence groups are needed to rule out the possible confounding by selective migration of psychologically distressed individuals (cf. Mueller, 1981). Thus, the greater the consistency of urban-rural trends across length of residence categories, the greater the support for the causal role of urbanicity per se.…”

Mental health services for rural elderly: Innovative service strategies

“…Although the mental health needs of rural elderly are not significantly different from those of their urban counterparts (Mueller, 1981), service delivery strategies need to be (Nofz, 1986). Bachrach (1981) has classified differences in rural and urban human service delivery requirements according to five criteria: 1) non-social; 2) demographic and ecological; 3) socioeconomic; 4) interpersonal; and 5) ideological.…”