Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Populations

Ensuring Age-Friendly Public Health in Rural Communities: Challenges, Opportunities, and Model Programs
Discusses the components of age-friendly environments and how to support public health efforts that improve the lives of aging residents in rural areas. Provides data related to rural technology access, rural versus urban poverty rates and healthcare provider workforce, county-level U.S. maps of percentage of population aged 65 or older, and rural versus urban majority communities. Includes innovations and recommendations for age-friendly public health systems.
Author(s): M. Aaron Guest, Megan Wolfe, Karon Phillips, Jane Hook
Date: 08/2023
Sponsoring organization: Trust for America's Health
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KFF Tracking Poll July 2023: Substance Use Crisis And Accessing Treatment
Provides results of a poll focused on the impact of substance use on American families, such as experiences with addiction, social and mental health impacts of substance use, and potential outcomes of substance use such as homelessness or need for medical care. Includes information specific to opioid use with results categorized by community type, including urban, suburban, and rural.
Author(s): Grace Sparks, Alex Montero, Ashley Kirzinger, Isabelle Valdes, Liz Hamel
Date: 08/2023
Sponsoring organization: KFF
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Medicaid's Coverage Role in Small Towns and Rural Areas
Discusses the roles Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) play in providing health coverage to residents of small towns and rural areas. Presents data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) on the percentage of children and adults covered by Medicaid and CHIP in 2020-2021. Includes a list of the top 20 small towns and rural areas with the highest share of children and adults covered by Medicaid.
Author(s): Aubrianna Osorio, Joan Alker, Edwin Park
Date: 08/2023
Sponsoring organization: Georgetown University Health Policy Institute
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Bridging the Gaps in Women's Primary Care for Those Treated at a Residential Drug Treatment Facility in Southwest Ohio
Analyzes access to primary healthcare for women in a residential substance use disorder (SUD) facility in rural Southwest Ohio. Considers factors such as substance use, mental health, sexual transmitted infections (STIs), and reproductive health in relation to primary care needs.
Author(s): Anna Squibb, Bradley Subler, Tongfan Wu, Vijay K. Rings, Khadijah C. Collins
Citation: Ohio Journal of Public Health, 6(1)
Date: 08/2023
Sponsoring organization: Ohio Public Health Association
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Forming Partnerships to Increase Rural Immunization Rates
Discusses barriers to vaccine uptake in rural communities. Describes how two community organizations worked to increase vaccinations in rural Alabama and how a network led by the National Center for Farmworker Health built the capacity to distribute COVID-19 vaccines and build vaccine confidence among migrant farmworkers. Identifies state considerations for implementing community-based programs to increase vaccinations in rural areas.
Author(s): Shalini Nair, Heather Tomlinson
Date: 08/2023
Sponsoring organization: Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
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Exploring the Other Side of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia: Informal Caregivers
Provides national data on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD) informal caregivers. Includes information on metro versus nonmetro caregiver relationship to patient, sex, age, education, marital status, types of caregiving, and amount of time caregiving, utilizing data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study.
Author(s): Adee Athiyaman
Date: 08/2023
Sponsoring organization: Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs
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Stressful Life Events and Healthcare Utilization Among U.S. Children Aged 2–17 Years
Examines parent-reported stressful life events, which are a subset of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and a series of healthcare utilization outcomes among children. Table 1 includes metro/nonmetro data on children who experienced any stressful life events.
Author(s): Lindsey I. Black, Amanda E. Ng, Benjamin Zablotsky
Date: 08/2023
Sponsoring organization: National Center for Health Statistics
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A Look at the Latest Suicide Data and Change Over the Last Decade
Examines suicide death rates by sex, age, and rurality between 2011 and 2021 by using CDC WONDER data. Includes data on the number of deaths by suicide overall and by firearms using provisional 2022 data. Describes these trends in relation to the implementation of the 988 crisis number in July 2022.
Author(s): Heather Saunders, Nirmita Panchal
Date: 08/2023
Sponsoring organization: KFF
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Discover My Tribal Area, a Tool to Quickly Find Data for Tribal Nation Reservations or Statistical Areas
Video explaining how to search for U.S. Census Bureau information in categories such as People, Jobs, Housing, Economy, and Education, using the Discover My Tribal Area tool.
Additional links: Transcript
Author(s): Eric Coyle
Date: 08/2023
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Census Bureau
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Palliative Care Needs and Preferences of Older Adults with Advanced or Serious Chronic Illnesses and their Families in Rural Communities of Indiana, USA
Presents the experiences of caregivers in rural Indiana related to palliative care, the needs of older adults with chronic illnesses, and the impacts on their families. Discusses themes such as managing pain, caregiver trust, distance and access to care, managing difficult conversations, caregiver burden, and use of telehealth in rural areas.
Author(s): Nasreen Lalani, Kawther Hamash, Yitong Wang
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 40(2), 368-375
Date: 08/2023
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