Study: Rural life is linked to longevity

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Since the turn of the century, most people have left farms to settle in big cities. But those who stayed behind in rural areas and small towns may have reaped a big bonus: longer life.
A nationwide study of people living in major urban areas, suburbs and rural areas found that city dwellers, irrespective of where they live in a city or their economic and educational status, are 62 percent more likely to die than rural people, especially as a result of cancer and infections. This was based on deaths that occurred in the survey group from 1986 through 1994.
The reason for the higher death rate seems to be that city residents are bigger risk-takers, said James S. House of the University of Michigan Survey Research Center. City folk are more likely than farmers to smoke, drink heavily, be underweight and be less physically fit, he reported in the American Journal of Public Health.