Self-Rated Health and Mental Health Among African Americans in the Rural South: The Influence of Social Determinants of Health.

Background: The current study examines the influence of seven categories of social determinants of health (i.e., financial resource strain, food insecurity, transportation needs, housing instability, education and health literacy, social isolation, and interpersonal safety), as well as perceived race-related discrimination and disparities in received health care quality on self-rated health and mental health.

Methods: Multiple linear regression was used to test whether social determinants of health and race-related stressors were associated with self-reported health status and self-reported mental health status in a sample of rural African Americans residing in the Southeastern United States.

Results: The results suggest that food insecurity was significantly associated with lower levels of self-rated health and mental health. In contrast, greater health literacy was significantly associated with higher levels of self-rated health and mental health. Surprisingly, greater transportation needs were also associated with higher levels of self-rated mental health status. Among the race-related stressors, racial discrimination was associated with lower levels of self-rated health status.

Conclusions: Community-based interventions that seek to alter social determinants of health and reduce experiences with racial discrimination may improve self-rated health and mental health among rural African Americans.