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Thursday, August 23, 2018

Rural caregivers face more financial challenges

Rural caregivers have more financial barriers to their service work than those in urban areas, according to a study of 2011-13 data from Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, published in The Journal of Rural Health. Caregivers were defined as people "providing care to a family member or friend because of a long‐term illness or disability."

Though they were more likely to report financial barriers to their work, rural caregivers were less likely "to report that caregiving created any difficulty" for them, either financially or health-wise, the study report said. "Rural caregivers’ coping strategies or skills in identifying informal supports may explain this difference, but additional research is needed to explore this hypothesis."

We'll bet "coping strategies" would be found to include a dedication to the work that overrode financial concerns, and a feeling that if they didn't do it, no one else would. That seems more likely in rural areas.

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