Transportation Difficulty of Black and White Rural Older Adults

Abstract

This study explores self-reported transportation difficulty among rural older adults, using data from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Study of Aging for community-dwelling participants (255 Black and 259 White) residing in rural areas. The authors examine the relationship of predisposing characteristics, enabling resources, and measures of need for care with self-reports of transportation difficulty. Blacks report having more transportation difficulty than Whites (24.7% vs. 11.6%; p < .05). When the authors introduce other variables, race differences disappear, but there is a race-by-income interaction with transportation difficulty. Whites with lower incomes are more likely to have transportation difficulty than Whites with higher incomes. When data from Blacks and Whites are analyzed separately, income is the only variable associated with transportation difficulty among Whites. Among Blacks, income is not related to transportation difficulty but several variables other than income (age, gender, marital status, Mini Mental State Exam scores, and depression) are.