Stress in rural Canada: A structured review of context, stress levels, and sources of stress

We conducted this review to organize studies on stressors, stress, and health of rural Canadians. An organizing framework of the pathway from psychosocial stressors (i.e., determinants of health) through perceived stress and physiological impacts to health outcomes was used (1) to situate the rural experience of stress within the individual using the existing reports on community and societal stressors and (2) to synthesize existing research on individual stress for rural residents. The emergent themes from the review indicated that stressors can be grouped as individual factors, relationship characteristics, health, work and education, community, finances, and the environment. We conclude by proposing that research measuring stressors of rural Canadians needs to be undertaken in order to understand the connections between health and stress for this population.