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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Environmental health

Assessing Key Indicators of Rural versus Urban Water Quality
Explores the national water quality monitoring data and highlights gaps in information needed to compare water quality across rural and urban areas. Examines water quality data sets and markers while making recommendations for data standardization as well as rural and urban data inclusions.
Author(s): Daniel Kilpatrick, Jeremy Cothran, Stella Self, et al.
Date: 08/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural and Minority Health Research Center (formerly the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center)
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Socioeconomic and Environmental Determinants of Asthma Prevalence: A Cross-sectional Study at the U.S. County Level Using Geographically Weighted Random Forests
Examines ecological associations of asthma by social and physical determinants at the county level. Includes U.S. maps that depict asthma prevalence as well as determinants such as smoking prevalence, depression prevalence, poverty, insurance rates, and more, which are further analyzed to depict their correlation with asthma.
Author(s): Aynaz Lotfata, Mohammad Moosazadeh, Marco Helbich, Benyamin Hoseini
Citation: International Journal of Health Geographics, 22, 18
Date: 08/2023
Type: Document
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An Active Roadmap: Best Practices in Rural Mobility
Provides a literature review and cases studies related to the ways rural communities encourage health-focused infrastructure, multimodal transportation, economic development, and environmentally safe practices. Describes the typology and demographics of rural areas and discusses how transportation is linked to wellness and community health outcomes.
Date: 07/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Smart Growth America, The National Complete Streets Coalition
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Developing a National-Scale Exposure Index for Combined Environmental Hazards and Social Stressors and Applications to the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Cohort
Discusses the process of building an index to assess environmental hazards and social stressors on pregnancy. Utilizes factors such as pollution, lack of green space, social economic status, social vulnerability, race/ethnicity, metro versus non-metro location, and more to define exposure risk.
Author(s): Sheena E. Martenies, Mingyu Zhang, Anne E. Corrigan, et al.
Citation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(14), 6339
Date: 07/2023
Type: Document
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Telemedicine and the Carbon Footprint of Healthcare: An Empirical Analysis of Illinois Counties
Examines the impact of telemedicine on reducing carbon emissions in Illinois. Provides metro versus nonmetro estimates as well as county-level estimates of carbon emissions savings in both outpatient and hospital settings.
Author(s): Adee Athiyaman
Date: 07/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs
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How a Black Community Brought Affordable Health Care and Clean Water to Rural South Carolina in the 1970s
Reports on a predominately Black rural community in South Carolina that worked together to provide indoor plumbing, build a health center, and improve health outcomes of their citizens in the 1970s.
Author(s): Olivia Lewis
Date: 06/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Association of Community Health Centers
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The Impacts of Extreme Weather Events on People with Disabilities
Reports on the impact of extreme weather on people with disabilities in the areas of regulations, healthcare, housing, employment, education, and emergency management. Discusses concerns and recommendations for both rural and tribal residents throughout.
Date: 05/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Council on Disability
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Photovoice Reveals Residents' Concerns for Air and Water Quality in Industry-Impacted Rural Community
Provides results of utilizing the photovoice method to assess how a predominantly Black community in rural North Carolina perceives their health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Discusses issues such as environmental justice, the impact of landfill and confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) on population health, and the benefits of using photovoice to research environmental health in underserved areas.
Author(s): Shelby M. Rimmler, Sarah Shaughnessy, Ellis Tatum, et al.
Citation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(9), 5656
Date: 05/2023
Type: Document
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The Use of Qualitative Methods to Guide the Development of the Border Resilience Scale in a Participatory Research Study
Highlights a study on the effect of social and ecological stressors for Mexican-origin adults residing along the U.S.-Mexico border on their physical and psychological health. Explores the factors that contribute to community resilience and emotional and physical wellness.
Author(s): Maia Ingram, Karina R. DueƱas, Idolina Castro, et al.
Citation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(9), 5703
Date: 05/2023
Type: Document
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Pesticide Exposure Among Latinx Children in Rural Farmworker and Urban Non-Farmworker Communities: Associations With Locality and Season
Presents a study on pesticide exposure of Latinx children. Compares exposure rates of rural children from farmworker families and urban children from non-farmworker families. Breaks down data by gender, family size, and types of pesticide detected, among other measures.
Author(s): Thomas A. Arcury, Haiying Chen, Sara A. Quandt, et al.
Citation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(9), 5647
Date: 04/2023
Type: Document
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