MITCHELL, S.D.  (MITCHELLNOW) It’s National Rural Health Day and experts are flagging research that shows increasing health disparities between urban and rural places, including in South Dakota. A new advisory from the American Heart Association shows between 2010 and 2022, cardiovascular death rates increased a whopping 21 percent among young adults in rural areas, especially after the onset of COVID-19. But in urban areas, that rate increased only three percent. Karen Joynt-Maddox chairs the association’s presidential advisory and says the change is due to a mixed bag of increased risk factors in rural areas.

  “And if you put that on top of a real problem with healthcare infrastructure and access in rural areas, you sort of have a perfect storm for worsening cardiovascular health. “

Joynt-Maddox says traditional risk factors include high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity, which have been increasing in rural areas over the last few decades. Other contributing factors, she says, include poverty, food insecurity, depression and substance use disorder.

Tim Nikolai with the American Heart Association in the Midwest says rural communities have less access to resources like health care and grocery stores with fresh produce. Even access to high-speed internet contributes to health outcomes. Health care providers are stretched thin, Nikolai says.

  “It stretched hospitals and health care providers to try to serve the needs of their community the best way they can. And that’s something we’re trying to collaborate with them on, is how can they meet people where they are?”

Nikolai listed some work happening in South Dakota including offering blood pressure monitoring at local libraries, installing four new Public Health AmeriCorps members across the state and the town of Spearfish prioritizing public C-P-R training and A-E-D access.