I understand that the question is asking for basically some of the reasons or factors behind why rural residents have poorer health status than urban residents. There are numerous factors that play into this. I think a lot of them are interrelated.
The other comment I'll make briefly is that there is also a regional difference. If you were to go to the health status in northern B.C., what they have difficulties with there would be different from what we have difficulties with in southwestern Ontario. There are geographical factors. For example, with lung disease, some of it is related to farm work. That has been shown to be a direct causal factor.
There are also economic factors, such as the loss of industry in a lot of these areas. We heard earlier that lower socio-economic status tends to lead to poorer health status as well.
Also, rural populations are older in comparison to urban centres. There's a higher percentage of older people living in rural communities because of aging across the nation, but also because of the out-migration of young people for economic, job, or education prospects.
I think there's a whole number of factors that can play into this.