From “Green Acres” to “Northern Exposure” or even “The Simple Life,” television plots that see their subjects leaving the bustling city for life in the quiet country are kind of a trope.
But it is a dream shared by many. You probably even know someone who’s made such a move.
A new study, however, might give one pause.
University of Southern California researchers have found a chasm in health that might surprise you. Rural residents have shorter lives than their urban counterparts, and they live longer in poor health.
They used a sophisticated computer model called the Future Elderly Model to find that urban men can expect to live about 17½ healthy years after age 60. Their rural brethren get only 15 years and seven months.
The disparity is big for women, too. Urban women at age 60 can expect 19 years and three months of healthy life. Rural women get 18 years and seven months.
The gap was pronounced in the South, less so in the Midwest.
Rural Americans smoke, have obesity and more chronic conditions at age 60, which set the stage for future health woes.
While health-adjusted life expectancy has increased by a full year for urban men since the late ’90s, rural men have made no gains.
Using simulations, the researchers found that addressing smoking and obesity would help. But they said a better payoff for those in rural areas likely would come from correcting health conditions and habits at a younger age.
So, if you’re going to make the jump from city slicker to country mouse, just make sure you’re as fit as a fiddle first.
A simpler life doesn’t have to mean a shorter one.