[Old and immobile in rural areas? Limited mobility of the elderly in the context of increasingly problematic health care in rural regions].

Against the background of considerable population ageing processes in rural areas, it is expected that access to the health care system in these regions will deteriorate. Within this context, the question arises as to whether elderly people have the ability to overcome increasing distances in order to receive adequate medical care. Hence the objective of this study is an in-depth analysis of the everyday mobility of elderly people living in rural areas. The empirical analysis is based on the German National Travel Survey "Mobilität in Deutschland 2008". Findings show that older women in particular experience limitations in their mobility options. Only 63% of mobility-impaired women (aged > 75 years) were mobile outside their homes, and only 37% had access to a car, which can be regarded as the crucial factor for being mobile. It follows that older and mobility-impaired women have to cope with everyday life under difficult conditions. In the context of the growing problem of access to the health care system in rural areas, the challenge is to ensure adequate primary health care for a large proportion of the immobile elderly.