“Indicators of poor mental health among adults — for example, serious mental illness among men, major depressive episodes among men and women, and recent serious psychological distress among women — have been found to be higher in large rural counties than in small, rural, suburban and urban counties,” Lara R. Robinson, PhD, from the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the CDC, and colleagues wrote. “Most studies examining children’s mental health in rural and urban areas indicate comparable rates of mental disorders in the two types of areas. However, mental disorders might be underreported in rural areas.”
Owing to increased reporting of mental, behavioral and developmental disorders (MBDDs) in rural areas, researchers used data collected from the National Survey of Children’s Health to assess specific discrepancies in health care, family and community factors for those with and without an MBDD in rural and urban areas. Robinson and colleagues included children between the ages of 2 and 8 with valid parent-reported information on age, sex, each MBDD and zip code. Geographic locations were divided into subgroups: urban, large rural, small rural and isolated.
[For more of this story go to http://www.healio.com/pediatri...among-rural-children]
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