Rural Project Examples: Population health
Evidence-Based Examples
Chronic Disease Self-Management Program
Updated/reviewed September 2023
Updated/reviewed September 2023
- 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.
Sickness Prevention Achieved through Regional Collaboration (SPARC, Inc.®)
Updated/reviewed July 2023
Updated/reviewed July 2023
- Need: Population-based rates of adult vaccinations and cancer screenings are low. Delivery rates are lower still in low-income and minority communities.
- Intervention: SPARC was established to develop and test new community-wide strategies to increase the delivery of clinical preventive services.
- Results: Across the United States in both rural and urban communities, SPARC programs, which broaden the delivery of potentially life-saving preventive services, have been successfully launched, improving residents' health.
StrongPeople™ Program
Updated/reviewed July 2023
Updated/reviewed July 2023
- Need: Few older adults, particularly women and those in rural areas, participate in healthy living interventions.
- Intervention: Health educators lead community-based healthy living classes, which include strength training, aerobic exercise, dietary skill building, and/or civic engagement, depending on the program.
- Results: StrongPeople™ programs have been shown to improve weight, diet, physical activity, strength, cardiovascular health profile, physical function, pain, depression, and/or self-confidence in midlife and older adults.
Helping Kids PROSPER
Updated/reviewed January 2023
Updated/reviewed January 2023
- 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.
Fit & Strong!®
Updated/reviewed August 2020
Updated/reviewed August 2020
- Need: Osteoarthritis is a chronic condition which often causes multiple related disabilities in older adults.
- Intervention: An 8-week physical activity, behavior change, and falls prevention program geared to older adults with osteoarthritis.
- Results: Participants gained confidence with increased exercise, lessened stiffness, improved joint pain and improved lower extremity strength and mobility.
Effective Examples

Updated/reviewed September 2023
- Need: A cost-effective approach to help rural patients with hypertension learn to manage their condition.
- Intervention: Community volunteers trained as health coaches provided an 8-session hypertension management training program to hypertension patients older than 60, with an optional supplemental 8 sessions focused on nutrition and physical activity.
- Results: Just 16 weeks after the program, participants had improved systolic blood pressure, weight, and fasting glucose, greater knowledge of hypertension, and improved self-reported behaviors.

Updated/reviewed September 2023
- Need: To provide diabetes care and education services to those in rural southeast Georgia.
- Intervention: Diabetes outreach screening, education, and clinical care services were provided to participants in Toombs, Tattnall, and Montgomery counties.
- Results: Patients successfully learned self-management skills to lower their blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure.

Updated/reviewed August 2023
- Need: To address the oral health needs of low-income uninsured and underinsured residents in rural Appalachia.
- Intervention: An oral health education program was implemented in Appalachian Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
- Results: This program increased oral health visits in the area and provided residents with valuable information on oral health resources and services.
Hidalgo Medical Services – Family Support Program
Updated/reviewed April 2023
Updated/reviewed April 2023
- Need: To reduce health disparities in two rural/frontier counties in southwest New Mexico.
- Intervention: Community health workers worked with clients to help them better manage their health and promote awareness of healthy lifestyle options in the community.
- Results: Better health outcomes for patients.
Franklin Cardiovascular Health Program (FCHP)
Updated/reviewed February 2023
Updated/reviewed February 2023
- Need: To develop sustainable, community-wide prevention methods for cardiovascular diseases in order to change behaviors and healthcare outcomes in rural Maine.
- Intervention: Local community groups and Franklin Memorial Hospital staff studied mortality and hospitalization rates for 40 years in this rural, low-income area of Farmington to seek intervention methods that could address cardiovascular diseases.
- Results: A decline in cardiovascular-related mortality rates and improved prevention methods for hypertension, high cholesterol, and smoking.
For examples from other sources, see: