Rural Health
What is Rural Health?
Perhaps the leading question is, "What is rural?"
The federal government classifies areas and population for statistical, programming, and funding purposes but definitions vary.
The Census Bureau does not define "rural." Instead, they consider "rural" to include any population, housing, or territory not in an urban area or cluster.
- "Urbanized Areas" of 50,000 or more people.
- "Urban Clusters" of 2,500 - 49,999 people.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines counties as either metropolitan or micropolitan, or neither:
- Metro area (urban core of 50,000 or more people) - Not Rural
- Micro area (urban core of 10,000-49,999 people) - Rural
- Counties outside of Metro or Micro Areas - Rural
For health information, the Health and Human Services Department uses Rural-Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) codes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA)’s Economic Research Service (ERS). They create the codes using U.S. Census data. Source: Defining Rural Population | Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) | Retrieved October 22, 2024.
Regardless of definition, the 46 million Americans, or 15 percent of the U.S. population, who live in rural communities generally experience increased challenges for delivering or receiving health services and resources. Rural populations also have:
- A higher percentage of older adults, who are more likely to have chronic health problems.
- More residents without health insurance.
- Less access to health care. For example, clinics and hospitals may be far away.
- Higher rates of certain substance use, such as cigarette smoking and opioid and methamphetamine misuse.
- Higher rates of chronic health problems such as high blood pressure and obesity.
- More exposure to environmental hazards, such as chemicals used for farming.
Source: Rural Health Concerns | MedlinePlus.gov | Retrieved October 21, 2024.
However, there are solutions to address and improve health outcomes in rural areas, and NNLM can help improve access to health information. Select an NNLM Reading Club book to discuss and learn more.
Discover Resources for Rural Health Information
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the nation's leading research agency. It recognizes that one-fifth of all people in the United States live in rural areas where health disparities are a pressing issue. While the underlying causes are complex, social determinants of health play an important role. For example, an estimated 22.2 million rural residents live in area with a shortage of health care providers. That's why NIH has created the Pathways to Prevention (P2P) Program to help identify gaps in a scientific area of broad public health importance. P2P workshops lead to:
- Funding opportunities to address important questions
- Improvements in data resources and methodologies
- New collaborative prevention research projects
You can use P2P workshop publications—like the systematic evidence review, independent panel report with recommendations for future research, and federal partners meeting report—to help fill research gaps such as Improving Rural Health Through Telehealth-Guided Provider-to-Provider Communication. You can also subscribe to their online consumer health newsletter, NIH News in Health for articles such as Connecting to Care | NIH Health in Rural America | March 2022.
The Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) is the education outreach arm of the NIH National Library of Medicine. NNLM offers training, funding and collaborative programming to improve access to rural health information for health literacy.
The NNLM Rural Health Webinar Series features expert guest speakers addressing the unique health needs of rural populations in the United States. The aim of the series is to provide practical evidence-based solutions that support librarians, health educators, community leaders, and direct care providers.
- Building Healthy, Resilient Communities in Florida’s Rural Panhandle | This presentation provides an overview of preliminary data from opioid users and library directors across the nation. Recording coming
- Facilitating Rural Access to Quality Health Information through Little Free Libraries | This presentation addresses an NNLM grant-funded community partnership between a public library and a university health science library. Recording coming
- Graphic Medicine Discussion: The Most Costly Journey | A discussion of the Graphic Medicine book: The Most Costly Journey, covering topics such as the intersection of race, immigration status and geography on mental health, the uses of graphic medicine to tell overlooked stories, and more. Recording coming
- When Your Community Is Your Hospital | This presentation shares an overview of a partnership that connected organizations in the rural northern region of California with a bilingual health educator and delivered local trainings, both in English and Spanish, that allowed community health workers to learn among their peers about the health information resources from the National Library of Medicine and other resources in their communities. Recording coming
- Promoting Walking for Health in Rural Communities | Rural American adults have higher rates of chronic physical activity-related illness and are less active than their urban counterparts, with less than 20% meeting U.S. physical activity guidelines of 150-300 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week. Recording coming
- Palmetto Connect: Fostering Digital Inclusion in Rural South Carolina | This session will cover a program designed to help close the digital divide for residents in rural and underserved areas of South Carolina by increasing internet access and affordability, training people in digital literacy, and connecting individuals to quality-of-life resources such as telehealth through digital inclusion. Recording coming
- Social Connectedness and Improving the Health of Rural Communities | This presentation reviews possible interventions for improving rural community health through social connectedness.
- Rural Health Resources | This webinar describes hallmarks of rural America, identifies access challenges of living in rural communities, and equips participants with tools to service the health information needs of those living in rural communities. Recording coming
Bridging the Digital Divide: Telehealth and Libraries Webinar Series, “Implementation of Telehealth Services in Rural Public Libraries.” April 3, 2024. Watch the recording
In 2023, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established the Office of Rural Health (ORH) to advance rural public health and lead the development of CDC’s Rural Public Health Strategic Plan. The rural strategic plan defines actionable steps CDC can take to collaborate across the agency and with external and federal partners to improve and advance rural public health.
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) provides equitable health care to the nation’s highest-need communities. Their programs support people with low incomes, people with HIV, pregnant people, children, parents, rural communities, transplant patients, and the health workforce.
Rural Health Information Hub (RHIhub), funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, is an online website to access reliable resources and tools to help you learn about rural health needs.
Featured Books
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Title: The HospitalPublisher St Martin's PressYear published 2021Book image
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Title: The Most Costly JourneyPublisher Vermont Folklife CenterYear published 2021Book image
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Title: WastelandsPublisher Penguin Random HouseYear published 2022Book image
Terms of use: Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) staff offer these health discussion resources for educational use. The materials included do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the author, publisher, or the sponsoring agencies of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).