Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Infrastructure

Rural Community Development (RCD) Grant Recipient Spotlights
Presents Rural Community Development (RCD) grant recipient stories about how they developed clean and safe water and wastewater practices in their rural and/or tribal communities. Includes video testimonials from RCD project sites across the United States that discuss the impact of water/wastewater programs in their locality.
Date: 03/2023
Type: Website
Sponsoring organization: Administration for Children and Families
view details
Rural Community Transit Strategies: Building on, Expanding, and Enhancing Existing Assets and Programs
Provides an overview of a potential rural transit model based on the current infrastructure in Minnesota and by examining other state models. Focuses on solutions such as hybrid mobility, small town assets, expanding service, responding to driver shortages, engaging citizens and networking within communities, and more. Discusses public health concerns such as food access and disability accommodations.
Author(s): Thomas Fisher, Mary Vogel, Alireza Khani, Fernando Burga
Date: 02/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Minnesota Department of Transportation
view details
Investing in Rural Capacity: Comprehensive Summary of the National Rural Development Stakeholder Listening Sessions
Discusses investments in capacity that improve quality of life in rural areas. Reports on responses from organizational stakeholders from the 4 U.S. Regional Rural Development Centers based on survey data and listening sessions that took place between 2021 and 2022. Focuses on strategies to address physical infrastructure, workforce and economic development, community vibrancy, climate change, health, agriculture and food systems, and equity in rural areas.
Author(s): Jason S. Entsminger, John J. Green, Rachel Welborn, et al.
Date: 02/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Regional Rural Development Centers
view details
The Ethnically and Racially Uneven Role of Water Infrastructure Spending in Rural Economic Development
Evaluates local government spending on water infrastructure between 1980 and 2015 in non-metropolitan areas to determine the impact on rural economies. Also considers how these measures change when accounting for the predominant race and ethnicity of the residents in these counties.
Author(s): J. Tom Mueller, Stephen Gasteyer
Citation: Nature Water, 1, 74-82
Date: 01/2023
Type: Document
view details
COVID-19 Related Protocol Considerations and Modifications within a Rural, Community-Engaged Health Promotion Randomized Trial
Examines data collection protocol modifications in the Change Club (CC) intervention which aims to improve civic engagement and built environment factors related to obesity and other chronic disease disparities. Analyzes 12 rural communities engaged in the CC intervention and discusses the subsequent measurements to observe intervention impacts, which were adjusted from onsite to self-reported due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyzes data collection protocols that can establish both rigor and feasibility in rural health research.
Author(s): Rebecca A. Seguin-Fowler, Galen D. Eldridge, Meredith Graham, et al.
Citation: Methods and Protocols, 6(1), 5
Date: 01/2023
Type: Document
view details
The Health Equity & Access for Rural Dually Eligible Individuals (HEARD) Toolkit: Raising Rural Voices from New Mexico, North Dakota, and Tennessee to Create Action
Provides an overview on the access barriers and health disparities of Medicaid and Medicare dually eligible individuals residing in rural areas. Presents research and stakeholder feedback from New Mexico, North Dakota, and Tennessee to provide information to policymakers. Discusses topics such as community planning related to equity and infrastructure, workforce capacity and community health workers (CHWs), and social determinants of health.
Author(s): Ellen Breslin, Samantha Di Paola, Susan McGeehan, Rebecca Kellenberg, Andrea Maresca
Date: 01/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health Management Associates
view details
Barriers, Facilitators, and Opportunities to Promote Healthy Weight Behaviors among Preschool-Aged Children in Two Rural U.S Communities
Examines barriers, facilitators, and opportunities related to supporting wellness and healthy weight in rural preschool children. Utilizes focus group interviews with parents, caregivers, and community organizations as well as observation of built environment to assess healthy eating and physical activity resources. Discusses wellness barriers and facilitators for preschool children at the family, organization, and community levels.
Author(s): Katherine Jochim Pope, Cason Whitcomb, Maihan Vu, et al.
Citation: BMC Public Health 23, 53
Date: 01/2023
Type: Document
view details
Neighborhood Greenspace and Changes in Pediatric Obesity During COVID-19
Examines rates of pediatric obesity before the COVID-19 pandemic and during the pandemic as related to normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) or greenspace. Analyzes patient electronic health records (EHRs) of 81,418 children who had a pediatric visit between June 2019 and December 2019 and then again between June 2020 and December 2020. Includes demographic breakdowns of EHR patients by age, sex, race/ethnicity, insurance type, neighborhood measures such as social/economic deprivation and supermarket access, and urban, suburban, or rural location.
Author(s): Stephanie L. Mayne, Shannon Kelleher, Chloe Hannan, et al.
Citation: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 64(1), 33-41
Date: 01/2023
Type: Document
view details
Analysis of Wastewater Samples to Explore Community Substance Use in the United States: Pilot Correlative and Machine Learning Study
Analyzed wastewater samples from 12 locations in the United States to determine feasibility in using wastewater surveillance for monitoring substance use. Discusses using machine learning as a public health tool for analyzing data to identify communities with similar resource needs. Includes rural-specific concerns.
Author(s): Marie A. Severson, Sathaporn Onanong, Alexandra Dolezal, et al.
Citation: JMIR Formative Research, 7(2023), 45353
Date: 2023
Type: Document
view details
Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Performance Functions
Offers data for use in developing pedestrian and bicycle safety performance functions (SPFs) for transportation practitioners at all levels to better inform planning, design, and operations decisions. Includes statistics for a wide range of site types including roadway segments and intersections in rural, urban, and suburban areas.
Additional links: Read Online
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Transportation Research Board
view details