For you get sick less if you live in the country side?

[12yearsinazkaban]

Thinking about how, in history, you lear about diseases spreading like wild fire in towns and cities. Then I realised that I live in a city.

dense population
Generally dirty
air quality is bad
lack of green space
Fly tipping and litering attracting vermin

you know how when you look in a history book and think 'oh those savages! no wonder the Spanish flu killed so many. look how they lived!' and then realise I live similarly.
in fact my local council is trying to fit even more people in by taking away what little green space is left! We haven't leant have we? I'm afraid we never will.

The biggest indicator of health is not geography but wealth, but that said, rich people have taken themselves off to the country since the dawn if time.

You really don't live similarly to how we lived in 1918.

TYpically for anything contagious, density is a factor in how quickly it spreads, so generally cities will be worse than rural areas.

There is lots of evidence to show poor housing has hugely detrimental effect on both physical and mental health, in both adults and children.

I live in the countryside and I do think there’s a massive health benefit to fresh air. Both for your lungs, I’ve been able to stop using my asthma inhaler since moving to countryside, and your mental health. Going outside and only being able to hear birdsong and the river is just really calming.

But as above- it is linked to poverty.

I'm not sure, eating well will have a large impact too.

Also years ago multiple families would have lived in one small building and shared a bathroom so not really comparable to a modern UK city today.

Have a number of thoughts on this. Air quality is usually lower in cities, although there are issues with farming, but bad air quality shortens life a lot.

However I read recently that loneliness/isolation is very hard on people, and this can be worse in rural areas. Being lonely can be worse for your health than smoking apparently.

Poverty is the real killer though, wherever you live.

Traditionally, eating well was easier in the countryside.

"However I read recently that loneliness/isolation is very hard on people, and this can be worse in rural areas."

Depends. You may be geographically isolated in the countryside, but feel part of a community whereas you may feel totally anonymous in a city. City life can be extremely lonely imo.

“similarly” is doing some very heavy lifting there.

How many families do you share your toilet with?

As we saw very obviously with Covid. Also, may international diseases never reach the countryside at all. We're also much more at risk from terrorism in a city.
I've been worried about air pollution in my area recently and not sure what to do about it. I'm definitely not wearing one of those masks.

perhaps on a population level its generally an ever so slightly protective factor for things like asthma but I think the impact on an individual level is limited. Much like breastfeeding.

I have a lot of experience of both 'worlds' and I've not noticed any substantial difference in health between urban and rural dwellers in the people I know.

It was very obvious in Wales that both cities and poor areas suffered greatly compared to my part of Wales. So it's a combination of density and poverty for us

Hmm - I live in a sparsely populated part of SW England. For a long time during the height of the covid pandemic our rates stayed very low. Just as the rest of the country was coming out of it, Covid ripped through here. Plus the effects of rural isolation were magnified by the social distancing rules shattering communities. So I don't think it's as simple as town vs country. There is a lot of poverty here due to lack of jobs and fuel costs due to long distances to good jobs.

I used to get way more colds and bugs when I lived in London than I do now, in a large town.

My theory is the difference is using public transport, especially at rush hour. You get very up close and personal on crowded tubes, and you share a lot of touch points like grab rails and buttons.

except rural life often means you are further away from medical treatment and may not have access to top care. so you may not get the heart and stroke tx within 3 hours same as c/s or pre term maternity. some jobs that are done in rural area's are more dangerous to life and limb (tractor accidents as well as dark road motor vehicle accidents). then come the general level of education of those that live there as well as those around you, they may not recognize early signs and symptoms of certain diseases.

The poor areas of Wales that suffered from Covid where also densely populated - the Valleys for example.
I don't think there was a poor, rural area that suffered particularly.

Yep it’s one of the reasons that although Devon had some of the first cases of Covid we never suffered as bad as say London