Rural Americans Are At A Greater Risk For Cardiovascular Disease

According to studies compiled by the National Grange, rural Americans are disproportionately impacted by many health conditions, and one of the most serious conditions is cardiovascular disease.  Chris Hamp, President of the National Grange, says their work revealed that rural Americans struggle with cardiovascular issues more than their urban counterparts.  The why, that’s much more complex.

“It involves income; it involves education; it involves employment; it involves housing and transportation, and food insecurity.  All of these things contribute to our health.  And our rural populations fare less well on average for all of these.” 

Hamp said while the issue of improving cardiovascular health in rural America must be addressed, that’s not the only difficult question the country faces.

“Why our why are our hospitals closing in rural America? Why are the pharmacies disappearing? Why are the doctors and the specialists leaving rural America? We need to sit down and we need to, we need to talk about that. We need to figure out what those solutions are and...I think a lot of it has to do with making people aware.”

Hamp noted the Grange worked with pharmacists, doctors and researchers to compile this data.

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