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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Public health

Highway Safety Behavioral Strategies for Rural Areas
Provides an overview of the risk factors of rural roads, such as rough terrain, wildlife, and lack of services over long distances. Includes examples of how to define rural roads, a related literature review of behavioral strategies in rural environments; safety toolkits and training; statistics on crashes, fatalities, and injuries; examples of counties that have reduced crashes; and more.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Transportation Research Board
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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2023-2025 HRSA Strategy to Address Intimate Partner Violence
Highlights plans of the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) to strengthen the federal response to intimate partner violence (IPV). Discusses IPV prevention tools, trainings, and technical assistance resources, including those relevant to rural populations.
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: HRSA Office of Women's Health
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America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2023
Provides a national and state-by-state overview of population health for older adults across 52 measures using data from 22 unique data sources. Covers social and economic factors, physical environment, clinical care, behaviors, and health outcomes. Highlights health disparities, including rural-urban disparities, across five categories of health. Includes state-by-state summaries and county-level maps for risk of social isolation by state.
Additional links: County-Level Maps for Risk of Social Isolation
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: United Health Foundation
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Seventh Biennial Report 2023: Health Issues for the State of North Dakota
Updates the previous six editions of this report with a comprehensive examination of healthcare workforce licensure data related to number of licensed professionals, locations, specialties, and demographics in rural and urban North Dakota. Includes a new chapter on pandemic planning and highlights the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences
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COVID-19 Vaccination Willingness and Uptake among Rural Black/African American, Latino, and White Adults
Using the COVID-19 Unequal Racial Burden survey, compares rural and nonrural adults' willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19. 1,500 respondents (500 from each racial or ethnic group) were used to compare willingness to vaccinate from rural Black or African American, Latino, and White adult population groups. Includes descriptive graphs showing reasons for their willingness or unwillingness among rural adults.
Author(s): Paula D. Strassle, Alexis L. Green, Caleb A. Colbert, Anita L. Stewart, Anna M. Nápoles
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 39(4), 756-764
Date: 2023
Type: Document
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Higher Hospitalization and Mortality Rates Among SARS-CoV-2-Infected Persons in Rural America
Presents a study on hospitalizations for COVID-19 based on rurality. Breaks down data for rural, urban-adjacent rural, and urban by age, gender, comorbidities, and outcome, among other measures.
Author(s): Alfred Jerrod Anzalone MS, Ronald Horswell, Brian M. Hendricks, et al.
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 39(1), 39-54
Date: 2023
Type: Document
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Future Planning for the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Enterprise: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Proceedings of a Workshop
Summarizes discussions held during a May 2022 workshop to explore the nation's public health emergency (PHE) preparedness enterprise. Includes key components, success stories, and failure points, to identify opportunities for effective catastrophic disaster, pandemic, and other large scale PHEs planning at the federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial levels. Mentions disparities between urban and rural or tribal areas throughout.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies
Date: 2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Urban-Rural Disparities in Childhood Obesogenic Environments in the United States: Application of Differing Rural Definitions
Analyzes rural versus urban differences in food and physical activity (PA) environments that contribute to childhood obesogenic environment index (COEI) scores. Utilizes multiple data sources to examine 6 food environment variables and 4 PA variables by rural-urban continuum codes, among other rural definitions. Discusses differences in COEI scores and implications for public health practices.
Author(s): Marilyn E. Wende, M. Renée Umstattd Meyer, Christiaan Abildso, Kara Davis, Andrew T. Kaczynski
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 39(1), 121-135
Date: 2023
Type: Document
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Staffing Crisis Casts Shadow Over Vulnerable Rural Communities: Executive Summary
Summarizes key findings from a series of surveys of rural hospital leaders conducted in 2021 and 2022 regarding staffing shortages. Discusses COVID-19 vaccination and exemptions, nursing shortages and the impact on access to care, and the effectiveness of recruiting incentives on attracting staff.
Author(s): Michael Topchik, Troy Brown, Melanie Pinette, Billy Balfour, Ana Wiesse
Date: 12/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: The Chartis Group
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Roles of Race and Residence on the Incidence of Sexually Transmitted Infections in South Carolina: Improving STD Prevention and Care Through Partnerships
Slides that depict information from two presentations. The first explores the associations of race and rurality in relationship to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among Medicaid beneficiaries in South Carolina. Utilizes South Carolina Medicaid administrative claims data from 2019 to 2021 to examine STI and HIV incidence with data broken down by age, gender, race/ethnicity, comorbidity index, urban versus rural location, and county. The second analyzes the need to provide STI care in primary health clinics and reports on case studies from 4 rural clinics who discuss a gap in STI screening and treatment as well as barriers such as workforce capacity, structural issues, and stigma.
Author(s): Elizabeth Crouch, Theodoros V. Giannouchos, Melinda A. Merrell
Date: 12/2022
Type: Presentation Slides
Sponsoring organization: Rural and Minority Health Research Center (formerly the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center)
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