Authors: Jaren Wilson
Mentors: Joshua Price
Insitution: Southern Utah University
Rural health has been an area of study for population for years as over 46 million Americans live in rural communities as of 2021. Access to healthcare has been suggested as a major disparity of this population. This study examines how the access of healthcare of varying degrees of urbanization impact mortality outcomes, using the number of physicians per 100,000 people as a proxy for the access to health care. Using a dataset over 3,000 counties in the United States over the span of four years we assess the disparities in healthcare access between different geographic locations.
The study implores the use of a multivariable regression model controls for time, level of urbanization, physicians per 100,000 people, time, county fixed effects, and other factors regresses the number of mortalities. The goals of this study are to demonstrate the disparities in healthcare access in different geographic locations across the United States.