LOS ANGELES (THE CONVERSATION) — Rural Americans – particularly men – are expected to live significantly shorter, less healthy lives than their urban counterparts, according to our research, recently published in the Journal of Rural Health.

We found that a 60-year-old man living in a rural area is expected on average to live two fewer years than an urban man. For women, the rural-urban gap is six months.

The causes of mental and physical stress in agriculture can seem endless. Long hours, physically strenuous tasks, lack of adequate rest, financial pressures, unpredictable weather and social isolation are just a few of the stressors that farmers and ranchers may face daily.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Rural Minds and the National Grange Society held a webinar discussing the challenges facing caregivers in rural America. Those mental health challenges often get overlooked. Brittnee Henry is a communications and marketing professional who returned to her home in Iowa to care for her father when it became clear he couldn’t live on his own anymore. “I chose to move home and be his advocate,” Henry said. “Even though he’s in a care facility, people must have an advocate and someone that can be there on a day-to-day basis at the drop of a hat if need be. Because of the nature of the disease with frontal temporal dementia, there’s a lot of agitation, there’s fear, and it was necessary for me to move home. So, it’s been a lot of tipping your life upside down, but I realized it’s really important to take care of yourself first when you’re a caregiver.”