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Rural Health Information Hub
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Project Examples: Evidence-Based

Browse rural projects that meet this collection's highest level of evidence. For each example listed, a review study of the approach has been published.

Updated/reviewed March 2026

  • Need: To reduce violence against pregnant women and women with infants in rural Missouri.
  • Intervention: A tool for existing home visiting programs, DOVE was a brochure-based and safety planning intervention for women experiencing interpersonal violence.
  • Results: Women receiving the DOVE intervention saw a larger average decrease in number of violent incidents than women in the control group.

Updated/reviewed February 2026

  • Need: Arkansas had high rates of low birthweight babies, and pregnant patients in rural areas had difficulty accessing specialty obstetric care.
  • Intervention: The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) created the Institute for Digital Health & Innovation (IDHI) High-Risk Pregnancy Program to increase access to care for pregnant patients in an effort to improve outcomes for high-risk pregnancies.
  • Results: The program has increased access to care and improved neonatal outcomes for rural Arkansas individuals through a variety of programs and has been recognized by various organizations as a model program.

Updated/reviewed November 2025

  • Need: To help people with chronic conditions learn how to manage their health.
  • Intervention: A small-group 6-week workshop for individuals with chronic conditions to learn skills and strategies to manage their health.
  • Results: Participants have better health and quality of life, including reduction in pain, fatigue, and depression.

Updated/reviewed November 2025

  • Need: Osteoarthritis is a chronic condition which often causes multiple related disabilities in older adults.
  • Intervention: An evidence-based curriculum incorporating physical activity, behavior change, and fall prevention geared to older adults with lower extremity osteoarthritis.
  • Results: Participants experienced less stiffness, improved joint pain, improved lower extremity strength and mobility, in addition to creating their own unique program for continued post-class use.

Updated/reviewed September 2025

  • Need: More rural doctors were needed in multiple states. In Pennsylvania, nearly half of the state's physicians practice in just three large metropolitan counties.
  • Intervention: Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University established the Physician Shortage Area Program (PSAP) in 1974 to recruit and support students who are from rural backgrounds and who wish to practice in rural communities.
  • Results: Approximately 80% of PSAP alumni have remained in rural family medicine for at least 20 to 25 years after graduation.

Updated/reviewed August 2025

  • Need: Rural areas face challenges in access to mental health services, including shortages of mental health providers.
  • Intervention: This 8-hour course trains rural community members to recognize mental health and substance use issues and learn how to help someone who is developing a mental health concern or experiencing a mental health crisis.
  • Results: Numerous studies of this method have found that course participants are better able and more likely to help others regarding mental health issues.

Updated/reviewed June 2025

  • Need: An approach to support sustained, quality delivery of evidence-based programs for youth and families in rural communities.
  • Intervention: PROSPER, a program delivery system, guides communities in implementing evidence-based programs that build youth competencies, improve family functioning, and prevent risky behaviors, particularly substance use.
  • Results: Youth in PROSPER communities reported delayed initiation of a variety of substances, lower levels of other behavioral problems, and improvements in family functioning and other life skills.

Updated/reviewed May 2025

  • Need: To enhance palliative care access to rural patients with serious illness, such as advanced cancer, heart failure, and COPD, and their family caregivers.
  • Intervention: Project ENABLE consists of: 1) an initial in-person palliative care consultation with a specialty-trained provider and 2) a semi-structured series of weekly, phone-delivered, nurse-led or palliative care coach/navigator sessions designed to help patients and their caregivers enhance their problem-solving, symptom management, and coping skills.
  • Results: Patients and caregivers report higher quality of life and lower rates of depression and (caregiver) burden.

Updated/reviewed April 2025

  • Need: A drug and alcohol prevention program for middle school students that is specific to rural culture.
  • Intervention: An adaptation of the evidence-based keepin' it REAL curriculum was customized for rural middle school students.
  • Results: Students showed a reduction in all substance use and less personal acceptability of substance use.

Updated/reviewed April 2025

  • Need: Population-based rates of adult vaccinations and cancer screenings are low.
  • Intervention: SPARC was established to develop and test new community-wide strategies to increase the delivery of clinical preventive services.
  • Results: SPARC programs, which broaden the delivery of potentially life-saving preventive services, have been successfully launched in both rural and urban communities across the United States.