Rural Project Examples Addressing Wellness, health promotion, and disease prevention

One Community Health's Wellness Programs
Updated/reviewed October 2017

Need: Difficulties obtaining healthcare access to treat diabetes and obesity for low-income and Spanish-speaking residents of Oregon and Washington's Columbia River Gorge area.
Intervention: A local healthcare facility developed wellness programs using bilingual community health workers to provide education and support that improves diets, physical activity, and teaches stress management.
Results: Many participants in the wellness programs have maintained or lost weight and have seen reductions in their cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. Vegetable vouchers, cooking classes, and budgeting education has also helped patients afford healthy food.

Communities that Care Coalition
Updated/reviewed April 2023

Need: To improve the health, well-being, and equity of young people in the rural area of Massachusetts's Franklin County and North Quabbin, and to reduce youth drug and alcohol use.
Intervention: A community-based prevention coalition was formed to improve youth health, well-being, and equity and reduce youth drug and alcohol use use. The coalition brings together stakeholders from across the community and uses the Communities That Care evidence-based community planning system.
Results: CTC has seen significant reductions in substance abuse among local youth in the 30 rural towns they serve.

ALProHealth
Updated/reviewed March 2023

Need: To improve access to healthy food and physical activity in rural Alabama.
Intervention: Researchers hold focus groups with community members to identify issues of the most concern and then help them implement appropriate interventions like installing playground equipment.
Results: From 2014 to 2018, 14 coalitions implemented 101 interventions in 16 communities.

Healthy Smiles: Early Childhood Dental Outreach
Updated/reviewed November 2022

Need: To decrease the number of children entering kindergarten with untreated tooth decay in the rural Appalachian counties of Rutherford, Polk, and McDowell in western North Carolina.
Intervention: A program to give children a dental home that included screenings, targeted outreach, and restorative services.
Results: An overall decrease within the service area of children entering kindergarten with sub-par oral health.

Tomah Hearing Loss Prevention Outreach
Updated/reviewed November 2022

Need: Farmers are highly susceptible to permanent hearing loss due to prolonged exposure to loud machinery and livestock.
Intervention: Faculty and students from the audiology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison supplied earplugs, free hearing testing, and hearing loss prevention education to attendees and participants at a local tractor pull.
Results: More than 16,000 pairs of earplugs have been distributed, and attendees have been receptive to the hearing loss prevention education provided by the audiology team.

Faith, Activity, and Nutrition
Updated/reviewed August 2022

Need: To increase healthy eating and physical activity levels in Fairfield County, South Carolina.
Intervention: Community health advisors trained church committees and delivered telephone-based technical assistance to improve opportunities, guidelines, messages, and pastor support for physical activity and healthy eating.
Results: In a 2018 study, churchgoers reported seeing more opportunities for physical activity as well as more messages and pastor support for physical activity and healthy eating. Intervention churches also had fewer inactive churchgoers, compared to control churches.

Healthy Early Learning Project (HELP)
Updated/reviewed August 2022

Need: An ongoing health need to alleviate early childhood obesity in the rural Kansas counties of Marshall and Nemaha.
Intervention: 5 distinct physical and nutritional programs were introduced to 9 preschool sites through the overarching Healthy Early Learning Project (HELP).
Results: HELP comprehensively increased children's physical activity and healthy food consumption and established a sustainable presence at each preschool site.

Contingency Management Smoking Cessation in Appalachia
Updated/reviewed June 2022

Need: To reduce smoking rates of pregnant women and adolescents in Appalachian regions of eastern Kentucky and Ohio.
Intervention: A web-based smoking cessation program that offered monetary incentives to reducing smoking.
Results: Participants significantly reduced smoking rates or quit altogether.

Health Extension Regional Offices (HEROs)
Updated/reviewed November 2021

Need: People in rural New Mexico often found it difficult to find and utilize needed resources from the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (UNMHSC).
Intervention: UNMHSC created Health Extension Regional Offices (HEROs), in which HERO agents live in the communities they serve, help identify health and social needs, and link them with UNMHSC and other university resources.
Results: In their regions, HERO agents' activities have been diverse, including recruiting physicians, mobilizing research funds to address local priorities, working on economic development, training laypeople in Mental Health First Aid, and helping local institutions access UNMHSC resources.

Northeast Louisiana Regional Pre-Diabetes Prevention Program
Updated/reviewed October 2021

Need: To prevent or slow the progression of diabetes for at-risk residents in Rural Northeast Louisiana.
Intervention: The North Louisiana Regional Alliance developed a program that offered screenings, education, and an intense course for participants throughout the Northeast Louisiana region to lower the risk of diabetes.
Results: The program saw an overall decrease in blood sugar levels in residents who participated in their initiatives.

Rural Project Examples: Wellness, health promotion, and disease prevention