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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Rural-urban differences

U.S. National and State Estimates of Children Living with Parents Using Substances, 2015– 2019
Estimates of the number and percentage of children whose parents engage in problematic substance use. Presents data by substance type; by child demographic characteristics, including age, urban/rural residence, and by state.
Author(s): Robin Ghertner
Date: 11/2022
Sponsoring organization: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
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Patterns of Health Care Use among Rural-Urban Medicare Beneficiaries Age 85 and Older, 2010-2017
Policy brief examining how rural and urban Medicare beneficiaries age 85+ differ in terms of their socioeconomic and health characteristics that may inform healthcare use. Features statistics on trends in healthcare use, including inpatient and emergency department care, outpatient and prescription services, specialists and dentists, and home health and durable medical equipment, with breakdowns by urban and rural location.
Author(s): Yvonne Jonk, Heidi O'Connor, Amanda Burgess, Carly Milkowski
Date: 11/2022
Sponsoring organization: Maine Rural Health Research Center
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2022 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report
Provides a comprehensive summary and data analysis of healthcare quality and access in the U.S. Addresses access to healthcare, patient safety, person-centered care, care coordination, effective treatment, healthy living, and care affordability. Includes a discussion of rural hospital closures and the impact on the distance required to access selected healthcare services.
Date: 11/2022
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
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2022 Rural-Urban Disparities in Health Care in Medicare
Examines rural/urban differences in the quality of healthcare received by Medicare beneficiaries in 2021, with breakdowns by race and ethnicity. Focuses on patient experience and clinical care measures, including screening for and management of health conditions and medication-related issues.
Date: 11/2022
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
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Rethinking Rurality: Using Hospital Referral Regions to Investigate Rural-Urban Health Outcomes
Examines the relationship between the proportion of rural population served in each of the 306 hospital referral regions (HRRs) and health outcomes, healthcare spending and utilization, and access to and quality of primary care. Explores whether mortality differences in HRRs are associated with differences in price-adjusted Medicare reimbursements, quality of primary care, and access to primary care.
Author(s): Lucy Skinner, Sandra Wong, Carrie Colla
Citation: BMC Health Services Research, 22(1), 1312
Date: 11/2022
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Child Nutrition Program Operations Study (CN-OPS-II): School Year 2017-18
Reports on policy, administrative, and operational issues in Child Nutrition (CN) programs in the United States. Analyzes 2,000 State agencies (SAs) and School Food Authorities (SFAs) to provide a nationally representative sample with 2017-2018 data on finances and eligibility related to school meals, meeting nutritional standards, implementation of policies to purchase local food, and more. Includes breakdown of data by SFA size, urbanicity, U.S. region, and percent of children approved for free or reduced price (F/RP) meals.
Additional links: Summary
Author(s): Jim Murdoch, Steven Garasky, Susan Ullrich, et al.
Date: 11/2022
Sponsoring organization: USDA Food and Nutrition Service
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QuickStats: Age-Adjusted Rates of Alcohol-Induced Deaths, by Urban-Rural Status — United States, 2000–2020
Line chart showing rural and urban alcohol-induced death rates.
Citation: MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report), 71(44), 1425
Date: 11/2022
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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COVID-19 Working Paper: Migration, Local Mobility, and the Spread of COVID-19 in Rural America
Examines how movement between and within communities was linked to the initial arrival and spread of COVID-19 infections into and through nonmetropolitan counties. Presents data on the level of migration to and from metropolitan counties and the relative change in work-related mobility for nonmetro counties in 2020 by the level of rurality and county economic type.
Author(s): Peter Nelson, John Cromartie
Date: 11/2022
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
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Factors Associated with Compliance to the Hospital Price Transparency Final Rule: A National Landscape Study
Examines 3,558 short-term acute-care hospitals' compliance with the Hospital Price Transparency Rule, which requires that hospitals publicly post a machine-readable file containing commercial negotiated prices for 300 services. Compares hospital compliance by state and hospital referral region. Describes factors associated with compliance, including health information technology preparedness, profit status, system affiliation, hospital size, and rural location.
Author(s): John Xuefeng Jiang, Daniel Polsky, Jeff Littlejohn, et al.
Citation: Journal of General Internal Medicine, 37(14), 3577–3584
Date: 11/2022
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Educational Attainment in Rural Areas
Presents information on highest education attainment of adults in 2019 by locale, broken down by city, suburban, town, or rural.
Date: 10/2022
Sponsoring organization: National Center for Education Statistics
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