Rural-urban health disparities among older adults in South Africa

There are limited studies assessing rural-urban disparities among older adults in Africa including South Africa. This study explores rural-urban health disparities among older adults in a population-based survey in South Africa. Data for this study emanated from the 2008 study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) wave 1 (N = 3280) aged 50 years or older in South Africa. Associations between exposure variables and outcome variables (health status variables and chronic conditions) were examined through bivariate analyses and multivariable logistic regression. Rural dwellers were more likely to be older, black African and had lower education and wealth than urban dwellers. Rural and urban dwellers reported a similar prevalence of self-rated health status, quality of life, severe functional disability, arthritis, asthma, lung disease, hypertension, obesity, underweight, stroke and/or angina, low vision, depression, anxiety and nocturnal sleep problems. Adjusting for socio-demographic and health risk behaviour variables, urban dwellers had a higher prevalence of diabetes , edentulism and cognitive functioning than rural dwellers. There are some rural-urban health disparities in South Africa, that is, urban dwellers had a higher prevalence of diabetes, edentulism and cognitive functioning than rural ones. Understanding these rural-urban health variations may help in developing better strategies to improve health across geolocality in South Africa.