Generally speaking, premature death numbers–a key indicator of overall community health–have been steadily going down. That is, unless you live in a rural area.
“The lack of improvement in health in rural counties while other counties have shown improvement over the last almost two decades was shocking to see,” says Donald Schwarz, a vice president at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In fact, one out of every five rural counties the report looked at actually has worsening premature death rates.
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