Conducting Rural Health Research, Needs Assessment, and Program Evaluation – Resources

Data Sources and Data-Linking Strategies to Support Research to Address the Opioid Crisis: Final Report
Identifies and describes secondary data sources that can be used in research and evaluations related to the opioid crisis. Discusses common approaches used to link or merge data sources. Describes research needs and challenges related to studying the opioid crisis.
Author(s): Rosanna Smart, Courtney Ann Kase, Amanda Meyer, Bradley D. Stein
Date: 09/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, RAND Corporation
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U.S. Small-Area Life Expectancy Estimates Project: Methodology and Results Summary
Describes the methodology used to determine the first set of abridged period life tables for U.S. census tracts from 2010 to 2015 for the District of Columbia and all states excluding Maine and Wisconsin. Provides statistics on small-area life expectancy at birth, and life expectancy at birth and population educational attainment by census tract.
Author(s): Elizabeth Arias, Loraine A. Escobedo, Jocelyn Kennedy, Chunxia Fu, Jodi Cisewski
Date: 09/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Center for Health Statistics
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Engaging People Who Are Hard to Reach
Discusses the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute's (PCORI) efforts in engaging rural communities in healthcare research. Presents methods for reaching migrant and seasonal farmworker populations, as well as other predominately rural groups.
Author(s): Ivey Wohlfeld
Date: 08/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute
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The Death Certificate: A Document to be Honored and Accurate
Provides an overview of the role that death certificates play in understanding death causation and in allocating health resources to address key health concerns. Discusses training approaches that can help address death certificate inaccuracies.
Author(s): Kay Miller Temple
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 08/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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HRSA Health Workforce Training Program Evaluation Toolkit
Evaluation framework for Primary Care Training Enhancement grantees in rural and urban areas. Provides recommendations to monitor trainee outcomes and program strategies, and includes 7 modules and related tools to be used in grant planning and in the evaluation phase.
Date: 06/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health Resources and Services Administration
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Issues in Developing Multidimensional Indices of State-level Health Inequalities: National Health Interview Survey, 2013–2015
Examines methodological issues related to developing and estimating health inequality measures that span multiple dimensions of health. One of the inequality attributes included in the discussion is urbanicity, based on the NCHS urban-rural classification scheme.
Author(s): Makram Talih, Maria A. Villarroel
Date: 06/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Center for Health Statistics
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Improving Health Research on Small Populations: Proceedings of a Workshop
Summary of a January 2018 workshop focused on health research with small population groups, including rural populations. Discusses the challenges of small population health research and innovative approaches related to study design, data collection, and statistical analysis to address these challenges.
Additional links: Read Online
Date: 05/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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The IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network: Building Research Capacity among the Rural and Medically Underserved
Describes the activities of the IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network, a product of the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program developed to enhance the competitiveness of research in states with low success rates for funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH). IDeA states exhibit high numbers of rural and medically underserved populations along with high rates of infant mortality, obesity, and poverty. Describes work underway to increase research capacity and access to clinical trials in the IDeA states. Introduces two proposed novel clinical trials with interventions for children who are overweight or obese.
Author(s): Jessica Snowden, Paul Darden, Paul Palumbo, Phil Saul, Jeannette Lee
Citation: Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 30(2), 297-302
Date: 04/2018
Type: Document
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Range Matters: Rural Averages Can Conceal Important Information
Findings brief showing how research focusing on averages without considering data range can conceal important information about average rural hospital profitability, distance between hospitals, and HIV prevalence by county.
Author(s): Meagan Clawar, Kristie Thompson, George H. Pink
Date: 01/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Rural Health Research Program
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The Future of Health Services Research: Advancing Health Systems Research and Practice in the United States
Focuses on the importance of health services research to guide decision-making. Addresses the history of the field, future priorities, major funders, its impact on improving healthcare systems and access to care, and needs related to data infrastructure. Includes data on projects supported by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, a few rural health research examples, and priorities related to rural.
Date: 2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Academy of Medicine
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