HEALTH-RELATED BEHAVIORS OF SENIORS IN RURAL VERSUS URBAN AREAS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Backgorund
In Polish cities, many organizations help senior citizens (60+), and many targeted programs support their healthcare. Rural areas, in contrast, have been very much neglected. The main goal of this study was to obtain data on selected health-related behaviors of seniors living in urban and rural areas. We compared exercise, eating habits, smoking and alcohol consumption.

Material and methods
The study was conducted in Poland among people aged 60 and above living in remote rural areas (n=128) and the city (n=146). Interviews were used to conduct surveys and collect lifestyle data. The differences between urban and rural seniors were determined in a significance test of two structure coefficients at a significance level of α=0.05.

Results
Some major differences between the two groups were observed: 23.35% of the rural and 15.75% of the city seniors did not exercise (p=0.0008); rural seniors smoked more (16.40%) than city seniors (7.53%; p=0.0225) and drank more units of alcohol at one time and tended to consume more animal protein.

Conclusions
The findings suggest that social policies and local programs aimed at improving quality aging should take into account local differences between rural and urban senior communities and tailor actions accordingly. Rural seniors need more interest and support from both government institutions and social organizations.