Differences in Social Determinants of Health between Rural and Urban Counties of Ohio

Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate any possible differences in social determinants of health between rural and urban counties of Ohio and how the determinants relate to each other. Methods: All data for each variable (percentage of population who have some college education, food insecurity rate, number of primary care physicians per population, average mentally unhealthy days for adults in a month, drug overdose death rate, life expectancy, and child poverty rate) was collected through County Health Rankings and Roadmaps from either statewide or nationwide programs through different studies and surveys from 2013-2017. I utilized descriptive statistics, a one-way between subjects analysis of variance (ANOVA), and regressions in order to answer my research questions. Results: I found that Ohio’s rural and urban counties significantly differed (p\u3c0.001) in two of the seven measures: percentage of population who have some college education and number of primary care physicians per population, with the rural counties having lower values in each. Additionally, the percentage of population who have some college education, food insecurity rate, number of primary care physicians per population, and average mentally unhealthy days for adults in a month were found to predict 48.4% of the variance in drug overdose death rate, 77.5% of the variance in life expectancy, and 92.9% of the variance in child poverty rate