Social support and self-rated health of African American women informal caregivers: urban and rural differences

In this study, the authors examined how geographic location might differently influence social support and self-rated health for rural and urban African American women caregivers. They used cross-sectional data from 253 urban and 263 rural women primary caregivers. Controlling for key demographic factors, the authors regressed caregivers’ self-rated health on social engagement, structural, and functional aspects of social support for urban and rural caregivers separately. The perception of family functioning was positively associated with urban and rural caregivers’ self-rated health. Urban caregivers reported having significantly more contact with their family and more informal helpers compared to rural caregivers. Furthermore, church attendance, a measure of social engagement, was significant for urban caregivers’ self-rated health, but not rural caregivers. The study findings affirmed the importance of foregrounding context and disaggregating social support, and point to the need for interventions targeting family functioning and paying attention to geographic location.