Rural-Urban Disparities in Mortality From Cirrhosis in the United States From 1999 to 2019

Introduction: We examined trends in rural-urban cirrhosis mortality disparities in the United States from decedents aged 25 years and older from 1999 to 2019.

Methods: We calculated cirrhosis age-adjusted mortality rates across 3 population categories: large metropolitan (≥1 million), medium/small metropolitan (50,000-999,999), and rural (<50,000) areas using the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-ranging ONline Data for Epidemiologic Research database.

Results: We found an almost 20-fold increase in the absolute difference in cirrhosis age-adjusted mortality rates between rural and large metropolitan areas between 1999 and 2019.

Discussion: Future research is needed to investigate reasons for this widening rural-urban disparity to improve rural cirrhosis care.