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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Economics and the economy

Save the Children Action Network (SCAN) Rural Voters National Survey Key Findings
Presentation slides showing results of a poll of 1,006 rural and small town voters, conducted by the bipartisan research team of New Bridge Strategy and Hart Research. Explores issues including food insecurity, inflation, and availability of child care and early childhood education.
Additional links: Polling Memo
Date: 11/2022
Type: Presentation Slides
Sponsoring organization: Save the Children Action Network
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Health, Work, and Care in Rural America
Report examining rural access to paid leave from work, the economic impacts of limited access to paid leave, and distances to hospital-based and skilled nursing care. Offers a broad view of rural economic and health dynamics, travel burdens to access hospital-based care, and presents policy recommendations to address paid leave as a social determinant of health.
Author(s): Vicki Shabo, Hannah Friedman
Date: 11/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: New America
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Through Natural Disaster to Prosperity: Five Principles to Improve Health and Economic Outcomes for Rural Communities and Native Nations
Describes 5 principles related to natural disasters and community resilience, including conditions that affect disaster vulnerability, relationships among rural communities and natural systems, equity in disaster response, local capacity, and responsive funding. Offers rural and tribal case studies and perspectives from rural economic and community development practitioners.
Additional links: Executive Summary
Date: 10/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Aspen Institute
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How Resilient Are Communities Along the U.S.-Mexico Border?
Examines economic and health risk factor data for the United States-Mexico border region based on Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) and American Community Survey (ACS) data. Compares average risk factor statistics for border counties, non-border counties in border states, and all non-border counties in the U.S., and offers comparisons for the 4 border states.
Date: 10/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Census Bureau
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Coal Production and Employment in Appalachia
Examines major trends in coal production and employment in Appalachia between 2000-2020 and assesses how those trends may affect economic performance in the region. Includes a section on health outcomes, with statistics comparing the mortality rate in Appalachian coal counties, Appalachian non-coal counties, and the rest of the United States, as well as the mortality rate in Appalachian coal region subregions.
Date: 09/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Appalachian Regional Commission
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The State of the Rural Economy in Indiana
Provides an overview of the rural economy in Indiana and includes data on issues such as population, employment and income, education, housing, agriculture, transportation, broadband, immigration, quality of life, and more. Provides county-level economic and demographic data as well as rural versus urban comparisons. Features information on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Author(s): Srikant Devaraj, Dagney Faulk, Michael Hicks, et al.
Date: 09/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Ball State University, Center for Business and Economic Research
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Impact of Inflation on Rural Household Expenses, 2021-2022
Report offering estimates of differences in how inflation between 2021-2022 has impacted rural and urban households based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Examines changes in income and expenses, noting concerns about the increased cost of travel for rural people to access healthcare, the ability to pay for unexpected healthcare costs, and the risk of homelessness due to housing shortages and costs.
Author(s): David J. Peters
Date: 07/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Iowa State University Extension and Outreach
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The Economic Effects of Rural Hospital Closures
Examines the impact of a rural hospital closure on local economic outcomes. Compares economic changes in nonmetro counties experiencing a hospital closure between 2001 and 2018 to changes in a control group of nonmetro counties. Presents data on the effects of rural hospital closures on annual income, population size, unemployment, and labor force size overall and by closure type and Critical Access Hospital (CAH) and Prospective Payment System (PPS) status.
Author(s): Tyler L. Malone, Arrianna Marie Planey, Laura B. Bozovich, Kristie W. Thompson, George M. Holmes
Citation: Health Services Research, 57(3), 614-623
Date: 06/2022
Type: Document
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Healthy Iowans: Iowa's State Health Assessment
Provides an overview of population health in Iowa with a focus on health outcomes and related social, economic, and environmental factors. Outlines Iowa's overall health profile and priority areas in public health. Includes county-level data on life expectancy, primary care and dentist workforce supply, and transportation; census tract data comparing rural and urban food access; and discussions geared toward rural-specific health issues.
Date: 06/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Illinois Department of Public Health
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Advancing Health Equity in Rural America
Report examining rural health equity, covering rural economic and demographic data, disparities by rurality, race/ethnicity, and class, and examples of initiatives that aim to increase health equity in rural communities. Offers recommendations for increasing health equity through economic and policy actions.
Additional links: Executive Summary
Author(s): Paula Braveman, Julia Acker, Elaine Arkin, Katrina Badger, Nicole Holm
Date: 06/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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