Health status and medical consumption of rural and urban elderly.

Health status and medical consumption by the elderly seem to be dependent on the place of residence. Several studies have shown that rural elderly are less healthy, but make less use of health services than urban elderly. In this study it has been found that in The Netherlands differences in health and use of health services between both groups are very small, but also that rural elderly have a better health than urban elderly and that these rural elderly make less use of health services. Explanations for this phenomenon cannot be found in differences in income, social contacts, social participation or care delivery systems. Migration also cannot explain the differences. Possible explanations are sought in the urbanization of the rural area. The small differences might be due to the operationalization of the concept urbanization.