Making the Case > Bottom-Line Benefits > How Do Rural Health Beliefs and Issues Affect Physical Activity?

Health Beliefs

Self-reliance and resilience are two words that come to mind when thinking about rural older adults. As a result, people living in rural areas are less likely to take part in preventative health.

In general, rural older adults are more likely to be physically active if the activity has a purpose, e.g., walking to check fence line, stacking wood or playing a sport.

Health Issues

People living in rural communities also experience more poverty, higher unemployment and a shorter life expectancy.

The economy, distance between services, and the lack of access to health services, information and professionals also affect healthy aging and older adults’ participation in regular physical activity.

Any strategy to increase older adult participation in physical activity must consider these issues and beliefs. More than one strategy must be used to reach this diverse population.

Resources such as the Age Friendly Rural and Remote Communities, Healthy Rural Communities: A Resource and Action Guide for North Carolina and Alberta Active Communities in the Find Out More section below are good sources of ideas. 

Find out More

• 2013 Alberta Survey on Physical Activity
  Results of a survey on provincial physical activity from the Alberta Centre for Active Living.

• Age-friendly Rural and Remote Communities: A Guide
  This Guide reflects eight themes:

1. Outdoor spaces and buildings.

2. Transportation.

3. Housing.

4. Respect and social inclusion.

5. Social participation.

6. Civic participation and employment opportunities.

7. Communication and information.

8. Community support and health services

• ACE Communities
  This Alberta Recreation and Parks Association (ARPA) initiative is designed to get more people, more active, more often.

• Canada’s Rural Communities: Understanding Rural Health and Its Determinants
  This report analyses the differences in health between rural and urban Canadians. The report aims to create a broader understanding of rural health needs and to inform and support policy and program development.

• Case Study of Physical Activity Among Older Adults in Rural Newfoundland, Canada
  This study looked at rural older adults’ perceptions of leisure-time physical activity from an historical perspective.

• Health Beliefs of Rural Canadians: Implications for Practice
  The authors explored health beliefs, values and practices of rural Canadians living in southern Alberta and central and northern Manitoba in a two-part ethnographic study using interviews and rural visits.

• Healthy Rural Communities: A Resource and Action Guide for North Carolina
  This guidebook is a resource for community leaders of all kinds. The guidebook provides a good starting point to help decision-makers make tough, complex (and smart) growth and development decisions.