Physical health in a Canadian Old Order Mennonite community.

CONCLUSIONS: The determinants shaping physical health in both groups (coping, body mass index, childhood disease history, age) are consistent with other studies on urban populations and people whose life circumstances vary widely. Therefore, these determinants represent targets for policy action because of their potential for widespread population health impacts. Ultimately, the fundamental health risk factors faced by small, isolated populations like OOMs appear to be common to other rural and general populations. The absence of social factors in shaping physical health in both groups differs from a number of social capital studies, and suggests there may be unique characteristics of rural or farming populations (eg high levels of self-reliance and independence). However, this could also reflect fundamental differences between physical and mental health, since other analyses show that social factors influence mental health. Understanding the absence of social factors in shaping physical health would benefit from better reconciliation of this study with others, but this is hampered by differences in health outcomes, models and measures employed across studies. PMID: 23537493 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: Rural Remote Health - Category: Rural Health Authors: Tags: Rural Remote Health Source Type: research