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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Populations

Cosecha: A Statewide Promotor de Salud Network to Attain Equity in Accessing COVID-19 Services in Florida's Farmworker Corridor
Describes the activities of a network of promotores de salud, or community health workers, promoting equitable access to COVID-19 services, including vaccination, among rural, migrant Latinx farmworkers in Florida from November 2021 to July 2022. Discusses program implementation, evaluation, sustainability, outcomes, and more.
Author(s): Anna Villagomez, Robin Lewy, Bruce Tyler, Jonathan Castro, Zorayda Avila
Citation: American Journal of Public Health, 114(S1), S74-S77
Date: 01/2024
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Veterans Health: VA Should Improve Its Monitoring of Severe Maternal Complications and Mental Health Screenings
Examines Veterans Administration (VA) data on deaths and severe maternal morbidity among pregnant and postpartum veterans from fiscal year 2011 through 2020. Explores actions the VA has taken to monitor maternal health outcomes among pregnant and postpartum veterans and the extent to which the VA facilitates mental health screenings for these veterans. Offers recommendations to the VA regarding monitoring trends in severe maternal morbidity by veteran characteristics and maternity care coordinators' screening of veterans for mental health conditions. Includes rural references throughout.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 01/2024
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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Temporal Trends in Substance Use and Cardiovascular Disease–Related Mortality in the United States
Analyzes 636,572 death certificates to identify trends for both substance use and cardiovascular disease-related mortality between 1999 and 2019. Breaks down data by rurality, sex, type of substance use, and more. Includes state-level comparisons.
Author(s): Abdul Mannan Khan Minhas, Jakrin Kewcharoen, Michael E. Hall, et al.
Citation: Journal of the American Heart Association 13(2)
Date: 01/2024
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Full Committee Oversight Hearing: "Rural Access: Is VA Meeting All Veterans Where They Live?"
The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs full committee oversight hearing discusses rural veteran's access to healthcare through the VA. Features a discussion of the VA's role as both a healthcare provider and a payer via its Community Care Program. Highlights technological challenges related to telehealth, such as lack of broadband connections and technological literacy of older veterans. Presents testimony from the VA, the Government Accountability Office, the Navajo Nation, and veteran advocacy groups, among others.
Additional links: Witnesses' Testimonies
Date: 01/2024
Sponsoring organization: House Committee on Veterans' Affairs
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Opioid Overdose Surveillance Preliminary District Report: Georgia, 2022
Describes district-level fatal and nonfatal opioid-involved overdoses that occurred in Georgia 2020-2022. Covers prescription opioids and illicit opioids, including heroin, fentanyl, and fentanyl analogs. Features statistics on demographics, overdose deaths, and emergency department visits, with breakdowns by district, drug type, and year. The Preliminary County Report contains county-by-county data.
Additional links: County Report
Date: 01/2024
Sponsoring organization: Georgia Department of Public Health
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Validation of Remote Anthropometric Measurements in a Rural Randomized Pediatric Clinical Trial in Primary Care Settings
Evaluates the effectiveness of remote assessment of height and weight for rural children, providing comparisons of remote and in-person measurements of 33 caregiver-child pairs. Provides measurement data, assesses measurement reliability, and identifies factors associated with measurement discrepancies. Describes the significance of findings in context of obesity treatment.
Author(s): E. Zhang, Ann M. Davis, Elizabeth Yakes Jiminez, et al.
Citation: Scientific Reports, 14, 411
Date: 01/2024
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VA Health Care: Office of Rural Health Efforts and Recommendations for Improvement
Presents an evaluation of the Veterans Health Administration's Office of Rural Health (ORH). Discusses the methods the ORH uses to improve healthcare quality and access for rural veterans, such as initiatives to expand VHA services to rural veterans and funding research to improve the healthcare quality in rural areas. Evaluates the ORH's efforts and makes recommendations for improvement.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 01/2024
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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How Tribal Medical Education Programs Could Solve the Rural Health Care Crisis with Natasha Bray, DO
Highlights a partnership between The Cherokee Nation and the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine to address physician recruitment and retention in tribal communities. Discusses physician residencies, cultural competency, national physician shortages, and lessons learned. Transcript beneath podcast player.
Date: 01/2024
Sponsoring organization: American Medical Association
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Supporting People with Disabilities in Rural Communities, with Rayna Sage and Catherine Ipsen
An episode of the Exploring Rural Health podcast featuring Rayna Sage, PhD, and Catherine Ipsen, PhD, co-directors of the Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities at the University of Montana. Focuses on the challenges facing rural people with disabilities and services and support systems that enable them to achieve and maintain quality of life.
Date: 01/2024
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Risk Factors for Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Abuse in Arkansas 2024
Provides state, region, and county-level data for Arkansas related to substance abuse by youth. Identifies risk factors associated with drug and alcohol abuse, such as the number of arrests, unemployment, school infractions, tobacco and cannabis retailers, and more, as well as associated public health outcomes such as substance use-related mortality.
Date: 2024
Sponsoring organizations: Arkansas Department of Human Services, Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, UA Little Rock MidSOUTH Center for Prevention and Training
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