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International research has shown that residents in urban versus rural areas differ concerning their satisfaction in life. Researchers agree upon the relevance of economic aspects for explaining urban-rural satisfaction levels: life satisfaction is dependent on income levels and rural habitants usually have lower income levels and lower levels of life satisfaction internationally. However, there is a lot of variation unexplained: in several studies, researchers found that in some countries rural residents are unexpectedly more satisfied with their lives than their economic and objective life situation would suggest (e.g. in China, Thailand, and in Western European, post-communist, Anglo-Saxon, and Latin American countries). Some researchers argue that cultural and social aspects, in addition to economic aspects, are better to explain urban-rural differences in life satisfaction. The author will extend this research by focusing on cultural factors in relation to Cultural World Regions. In addition, she will use newer data from the World Values Survey and the World Bank. The guiding questions are 1) how relevant are economic-materialistic aspects for life satisfaction? And 2) in how far are there differences between cultural world regions, such as East and Central Asia, Western and post-communist Europe, Latin America, Anglo-Saxon countries, and Arabic and Sub-Saharan Africa? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous meta-analyses have revealed that in adult and older adult populations of developed countries, depression is more prevalent in urban than rural areas. No meta-analyses have identified the effects of urbanicity on the general age demographic for developing countries. We conducted a meta-analysis of urban-rural differences in depression across all age demographics for developed and developing countries. PubMed and PsycINFO databases were searched for studies published between 1980 and 2020. Studies were included if they reported prevalences of urban and rural depression, or odds ratios comparing urban-rural depression prevalence. Studies were excluded for: nonrepresentative samples, non-standard measures of depression, and reporting continuous outcomes only. Meta-analytic models of urban-rural differences in the odds of depression were conducted across country development levels and age demographics. From 1597 records screened and 302 full texts assessed for eligibility, 80 studies (N = 539,557) were included for meta-analysis. Urban residence was significantly associated with a higher prevalence of depression in developed countries (OR = 1.30, 95 % CI [1.17, 1.46], z = 4.75, p <.001), which was primarily driven by urban-rural differences in the general population age demographic (OR = 1.37, 95 % CI [1.22, 1.54], z = 5.38, p <.001). Studies reporting urban-rural differences in depression in terms of continuous symptom severity scores were not included. Urbanicity appears to uniquely be associated with a higher prevalence of depression in developed countries, but not in developing countries. • In developed countries, depression is more prevalent in urban than rural areas. • This urbanicity effect is most observable in the general age demographic. • In developing countries, there is no effect of urbanicity on depression. • The impact of urbanicity on depression may be growing for developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have shown that children in rural areas face excess risks of dying, but the little research on spatial inequalities in adult mortality has reached mixed conclusions. We examine rural–urban differences in mortality in 53 low- and middle-income countries. We consider how the rural–urban mortality gap evolves from birth to age 60 by estimating mortality based on birth and sibling histories from 138 Demographic and Health Surveys run between 1992 and 2018. We observe excess rural mortality until age 15, finding the largest differences between urban and rural sectors among 1–59-month-olds. While we cannot claim higher mortality among urban adults than those in rural areas, we find a reduced gap between the sectors over the life course and a diminishing urban advantage in adult mortality with age. This shift over the life course reflects a divergence in the epidemiologic transition between the rural and urban sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural-urban health disparities in life expectancy are large and increasing, with the rural-urban disparity stroke mortality serving as a potential contributor. Data from Vital Statistics shows an unexplained temporal pattern in the rural-urban disparity in stroke-specific mortality, with the magnitude of the disparity increasing from 15% to 25% between 1999 and 2010, but subsequently decreasing to 8% by 2019. This recent decrease in the magnitude of the rural-urban disparity in stroke mortality appears to be driven by a previously unreported plateauing of stroke mortality in urban areas and a continued decline of stroke mortality in rural areas. There is a need to better understand the contributors to these temporal changes; however, a general lack of temporal data on potential contributors prevents this investigation. However considering contributors to the rural-urban differences pooled across time, an overall a higher stroke incidence in rural areas appears to be a contributor to the higher rural stroke mortality, with this higher incidence potentially associated with a higher prevalence of stroke risk factors in rural areas. Conversely, studies assessing rural-urban disparities in stroke case fatality show smaller and inconsistent associations. To the extent that disparities in case fatality do exist, there are many studies showing rural-urban disparities in stroke care could be contributing. While these data offer insights to the overall rural-urban disparities in stroke mortality, additional data are needed to help understand temporal changes in the magnitude of the rural-urban stroke mortality disparity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political behaviour of citizens is traditionally formed by a wide range of factors that influence their voting decision in the election. Dichotomy of both the space and society into the town and the countryside generates different election results constantly. A key aim of this paper is to assess the extent of rurality concerning the electoral support of relevant political parties operating on the Slovak political scene after the groundbreaking elections held in 1998 until ballots of 2010 not only at national, but also at the regional level. Evaluation of level and dynamics in socio-political cleavage between rural and urban space is one of the most important research ambitions of this study. We shall note the position of particular regions in Slovakia in terms of size and acceleration of the conflict and try to categorize them according to the similarity in values of indicators characterizing this social discrepancy. On the basis of found facts, we shall appraise the electoral success of political parties in urban and rural environment and compose the regional typization of Slovakia concerning the party representatives of urban and rural environment. Finally, we shall evaluate the potential of the regions to be future outbreak sites of latent cleavage influencing their differential political inclination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This research explored the roles of ‘rurality’ – nonmetropolitan county population size and adjacency to metropolitan areas – on self-rated health among a nationally representative sample of US adults. Using seven years of pooled individual level data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and county-level data from the County Characteristics survey, we found that residents of remote rural counties have the greatest odds of reporting bad health and that the significant differences in self-rated health between metropolitan residents and residents of rural areas can be entirely explained by rural structural disadvantage, including higher rates of unemployment and population loss and lower levels of educational attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]