HOW STRESSED ARE RURAL PEOPLE?
Jill Kerby, South Australian Department of Agriculture
This article was first published in Rural Society 2 (3). Rural Society is published by the Centre for Rural Social Research, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia.
This article is ©copyright, the author and the Centre for Rural Social Research. This text may be downloaded for personal use, or stored electronically, as long as no charge is made for access. The text may not be altered in any way and all hard copy or electronic versions MUST carry this header HOW STRESSED ARE RURAL PEOPLE?Farming is ranked as one of the more stressful occupations. Nevertheless, there have been few, if any, empirical studies of stress in rural Australia (Humphreys and Rolley, 1991). A New South Wales study claimed that rural populations have poor health practices, with high levels of alcohol and tobacco consumption, a greater level of stress and a poor level of nutrition, but this study did not distinguish between respondents who were truly rural and those living in major urban centres (Fitzwarryne and Fitzwarryne, 1982). A two-day phone-in on rural stress, conducted in Adelaide in 1987, 'represented Australia's first mayor survey on the nature and extent of economic and emotional stress in the rural community'. The phone-in received 300 calls from all parts of the State. Almost 95% cited financial problems as the reason for calling, and over half stated their current level of stress as 'high' or 'very high'. However, respondents were self-selected and not representative of the community as a whole (Slee,1988). More recently, Dr Peter Yellowlees, then a rural psychiatrist based at Broken Hill, raised the issue of rural stress at a medical conference in Adelaide in May 1991. He feared that alcoholism, depression, suicide and emotional disturbances, fuelled by isolation, the rural recession, and a sense of loss among country people, would have a resounding impact on Australia's economy for years to come: 'Rural communities are drinking three times the national average and, with significantly more depression, an economic recession and free availability of guns, there have been disturbing increases in suicide'. (Hailstone, 1991). Much of the previous information on stress and related issues is anecdotal or concentrates on causes and possible solutions. Examples include the Rural Womens' Newsletter NETWORK, case studies cited in the reports of rural counsellors, and the Rural Health Project of the Uniting Church, which reprinted and distributed the brochure 'Coping with Stress in our Country Communities'. The South Australian Department of Agriculture, which operates community information and training services, was particularly interested in whether the health and stress levels of people in rural areas was significantly different to that of people in metropolitan areas. The Department was also concerned to determine whether the rural downturn was affecting rural health and stress. The South Australian Health Commission, which produced Australia's first social health atlas, was not aware of any previous measurements of the issues. The Health Omnibus The opportunity to obtain some clearer information arose from a so-called Health Omnibus, being run for the second time in South Australia in 1991. The idea of an omnibus survey is that several organisations share the cost of conducting a survey; each organisation pays only for those questions which are of direct relevance to their information requirements. The Health Omnibus offered a sample of 4 500 households, with a minimum of 75% guaranteed, thus making the survey one of the largest ever conducted in South Australia. Three quarters of the households were to be selected from the metropolitan area and the rest from rural areas of the State. The Health Omnibus is organised by Harrison Market Research, in association with the South Australian Health Commission. By using personal interviews with one adult over 18 years randomly selected from each household, more complex issues can be explored. The opportunity was unique, there were no alternatives available to gather this data over such a large sample. The only drawback was that, to contain costs and to use interviewers in a time-effective manner, the rural sample was selected from centres with a population of 1 000 or more. Nevertheless, it was considered that these centres would reflect and provide an indication of the situation in the farming community. The Survey A total of 4 500 households were selected on the basis of a clustered area sampling procedure and interviews were completed in the period October to December 1991. Of the 3 379 people interviewed, 2 457 (73%) lived in the metropolitan area and 922 (27%) in the country. The Department of Agriculture paid for the inclusion of six questions on the Health Omnibus Survey on the understanding that these, in combination with other questions commissioned by other subscribers, would help provide insights into rural stress and health.
The Results The main findings are shown in Figures 1 to 5. They were somewhat unexpected, with:
Other indicators of stress, such as frequency of drinking alcohol, blood pressure readings, cholesterol tests, the prescription of drugs to assist with stress problems, smoking status, hearing difficulties and health of the elderly showed no significant difference between country and metropolitan areas. For example, 11% of respondents from country and metropolitan areas said they drink alcohol every day; 84% of country and 82% of metropolitan respondents described their last blood pressure reading as 'normal'; 66% of country and 64% of metropolitan respondents described their blood cholesterol as 'normal'; 9% of country and 10% of metropolitan respondents had been prescribed drugs to assist with a stress problem; 25% from both areas were current smokers (although a higher proportion in the country were ex-smokers (27% compared to 22% in metropolitan areas); 83% of country and 86% of metropolitan respondents have no difficulty in hearing what people say to them in a quiet room; and 77% of respondents over 60 years in both areas rated their current health as 'good', 'very good' or 'excellent', although a slightly lower proportion of elderly country respondents rated their health as better than most people their age. Demographically, there were some differences. For example a higher proportion of country respondents had been born in Australia and were married at the time of the interview. The largest difference, however, was in educational level; a lower proportion of country respondents had a certificate, diploma, bachelor degree or higher (23% compared to 30% for metropolitan) and 31% had left school at the age 15 or earlier, compared to 24% of metropolitan respondents. Discussion In view of the small difference in stated stress levels between metropolitan and country respondents, some further analysis was undertaken. For example, of those who said they were more or much more stressed during the last six months, there was a slight tendency for younger (under 30 years) to be in this category in the metropolitan area and for people aged 46 to 60 in the country. Of all the people whose stress levels had changed (better or worse), people in the country tended to attribute the change to death in the family or sickness, whereas metropolitan respondents were more likely to have had an increase in workload, to have lost a job or to be suffering from the 'hectic pace of life.' However these and other differences are too small to be significant. Conclusion Despite some limitations, the 1991 Health Omnibus is the first known attempt to provide reliable data on whether health and stress levels of people in rural areas are significantly different to that in the metropolitan area and whether the rural downturn is affecting rural stress and health. The findings showed very little difference overall, with a slight tendency for people in South Australian country regions to suffer from lower levels of stress then their metropolitan counterparts. The rural sample was, for pragmatic reasons, confined to people living in communities of 1 000 or more. Nevertheless, further work, targeted specifically at the farming community may not be justified at this stage.
References Coping with Stress in Our Country Communities. Brochure prepared by the 'Women in Agriculture - Victorian Mallee Group' for the Better Health - Rural Heath Project Craig R (1983) 'Coping with farm family stress', Australian Farm Management Society Newsletter 9 (11) pp 1-12. Fitzwarryne P. and Fitzwarryne C. (1982) Health Education Programme (Rural Areas) Evaluation of a Demonstration Project. Health Research Associates, Canberra. Hailstone B. (1991)Depression -- the new epidemic. The Advertiser,May 31. Humphreys J. and Rolley F. (1991) Health and Health Care in Rural Australia. A Literature Review. University of New England, Armidale. Network: Quarterly Newsletter of the Rural Women's Network. (Ministry of Ethnic, Municipal and Community Affairs, Melbourne.) Slee P. (1988) 'Crisis on the Farm: a Telephone survey of rural stress'. Australian Social Work 41 (4) pp. 9-13. South Australian Health Commission (1990) A Social Health Atlas of South Australia. SAHC, Adelaide.
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