Rural and Urban Differences in Cognitive Healthy Life Expectancies Among Older Adults in Mexico

Mexico has experienced rapid demographic change over the past century. One key trend that has shifted the Mexican population has been rapid population aging with the number of older adults, the percentage of the population age 60 and over, and the mean age of the population projected to increase considerably over the coming decades (Consejo Nacional de Poblacion, 2004). The growth of the older population has spurred great research interest in cognitive aging in Mexico given the substantial social and economic costs associated with cognitive impairment and dementia that have been observed in the United States (Hurd, Martorell, Delavande, Mullen, & Langa, 2013). In addition to population aging processes, Mexico has also experienced a rural to urban population shift (Sanchez & Pacheco, 2012). Alongside the growth of cities, however, Mexicans living in rural areas continue to be disadvantaged in several regards when compared to their urban dwelling counterparts. For example, living in rural areas is associated with having fewer opportunities to obtain education (Wong & Palloni, 2009), having less access to healthcare (Salinas, Al Snih, Markides, Ray, & Angel, 2010) and preventative care (Wong & Diaz, 2007), and fewer employment opportunities (Sanchez & Pacheco, 2012>).