Country SA people generally sicker, but less likely to complain about ill health than city people
The tough, stoic farmer isn’t a myth. Country people have far higher rates of illness but complain less about bad health – because ‘good health’ means something else beyond the metro area.
SA News
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An official survey examining SA country health and welfare has revealed what many suspect – rural South Australians are much sicker, but less negative about their health than city slickers.
Results from the Regional South Australia Health study show compared with their city cousins, double the number of country people rate their health as “excellent” and almost three times as many rate it as “very good”.
This is despite rates of illness up to 20 times worse than in Adelaide, across multiple health conditions.
Published in the international journal Health and Social Care in the Community, UniSA lead author Associate Professor Matthew Leach said not enough was known about rural health in SA and how to improve it.
“One region in particular, where the health needs of the population have not been comprehensively assessed to date, is regional South Australia,” he said.
“Not only does this region represent one of the least-densely populated states in the world, it has some of the highest rates of psychological distress, chronic disease and multiple illnesses of any state or territory of Australia.’’
The survey found rates of illness diagnosed by doctors in regional areas were:
TWENTY times higher for eczema and dermatitis;
FOUR times higher for skin cancer;
FOUR times higher for other cancers, such as bowel, prostate and breast cancer; and
THREE times higher for cataracts.
The 3926 country respondents recorded 264 distinct health conditions. The most frequently reported conditions were mental/behavioural disorders (2623), cardiovascular disorders (2604) and skin disorders (1132).
The study authors suggest the causes of higher illness rates in country areas could be due to poorer diet, lower incomes, higher unemployment and poverty, greater exposure to the effects of extreme weather events, problems with water quality and difficulties accessing essential services and critical infrastructure.
One in every four person in country SA is suffering from depression, but only one in six in cities.
One in five do not sleep properly, compared with one in seven in the cities. The proportion of country people living with two or three or more chronic health conditions is 32.1 per cent and 5.6 per cent higher, respectively, than that reported in the urban SA population.
Prof Leach said the positive attitudes in rural SA were partly because “good health” was not just about being free of illness, but about being engaged with a community and having social relationships.
“The disparate prevalence rates of chronic health conditions and perceived health status in our sample may be reflective of rural stoicism and broader notions of health often noted in regional Australian populations,” he said.
“Farming populations have described health as extending to active community participation and social relationships, and view this as situated within functional capacity, rather than disease absence.”
Prof Leach said the study aimed to find ways to address health problems beyond SA’s cities, with better access to healthcare the major solution to the issues found in country areas.
“These findings highlight the need for a more-targeted approach to delivering health services and health promotion activities in regional areas,” he said.
The proportion of country residents rating their health as excellent or very good was 116.3 per cent and 172.4 per cent higher than those in the city. Those who said it was fair or poor were 41.9 per cent and 62.4 per cent lower.