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Rural Health Information Hub

Social Determinants of Health for Rural People – Resources

Selected recent or important resources focusing on Social Determinants of Health for Rural People.

Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal
A database of global, English language, peer-reviewed and gray literature on climate change's impact on human health. Database filters allow for limiting to both rural locations and the United States.
Type: Website
Sponsoring organization: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
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County Economic Status in Appalachia, FY 2024
Map showing levels of economic distress in Appalachian counties based on unemployment rates, income, and poverty levels. Includes interactive map, downloadable maps and data files, and data report.
Type: Map/Mapping System
Sponsoring organization: Appalachian Regional Commission
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SparkMap's Community Assessment Tool
Allows user to select data indicators such as demographics, economics, housing, education, health behaviors and indicators, healthcare workforce, and more by state and county to create a community assessment report. Utilizes data from multiple geographical levels and housed with the US Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Transportation, and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Type: Map/Mapping System
Sponsoring organization: Center for Applied Research and Engagement Systems
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Poverty Area Measures
Provides access to poverty area measures for counties and census tracts covering high poverty, extreme poverty, persistent poverty, and enduring poverty. Includes Decennial Census data for 1960 (county) or 1970 (census tract) through 2000 and for American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year periods of 2007-11, 2015-19, and 2017-21. Available in spreadsheet format.
Type: Tool
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
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Housing Solutions Matchmaker Tool
An interactive county-level U.S. map that shows housing affordability by high, moderate, or low cost as well as by growing or shrinking population. Allows user to select county for additional information such as population changes, median income, median home value and rental costs, housing quality, and policy recommendations for strategies to address housing issues.
Type: Map/Mapping System
Sponsoring organizations: Aspen Institute, Brookings Metro, National Association of Counties
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Rural Health Literacy Toolkit
Resources and best practices to develop programs to improve personal and organizational health literacy in rural communities. Identifies program models and examples, and discusses implementation, evaluation, sustainability, and dissemination of program results.
Type: Website
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Social Determinants of Health Database
Provides data files reflecting social determinants of health (SDOH) variables, including social context, economic context, education, physical infrastructure, and healthcare context that is linkable by county or zip code. Data are curated from federal and other public datasets.
Type: Database
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
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PLACES: Local Data for Better Health
Interactive mapping system providing chronic disease related data at the county, place, census tract, and ZIP code level. Covers measures related to health status, health outcomes, prevention, health risk behaviors, and social determinants of health.
Additional links: Compare Measures, Interactive Map, PLACES Data Portal
Type: Website
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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Roots of Health Inequity Project
Offers a web-based course and learning collaborative designed for the local public health workforce to explore the social determinants of health and the root causes of inequity in the distribution of disease, illness, and death. Participants are responsible for identifying underlying themes and discussing how they relate to specific organizations and communities.
Type: Tutorial/Training
Sponsoring organizations: National Association of County and City Health Officials, National Institutes of Health
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State Approaches for Addressing Rural Social Determinants of Health
Recommends state and federal tactics to improve social determinants of health and address rural health disparities. Covers transportation, broadband, income, and educational attainment.
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
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Additional resources are available related to this guide. See the full list of resources by topic for:


Last Updated: 1/11/2024