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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Population health

Exploring Strategies to Improve Health and Equity in Rural Communities
Identifies the strengths and assets of rural communities, key partners, change agents, and opportunities to leverage assets to improve rural health and equity through a national forum of over 400 national and regional cross-sector stakeholders. Findings were organized into 4 categories: individual assets, organizational assets, community assets, and cultural assets. Includes discussion on challenges and opportunities for action for each asset category.
Additional links: Leveraging Culture and History to Improve Health and Equity in Rural Communities, Recommendations for Philanthropies and Government Agencies to Improve Health and Equity in Rural Communities, Supporting Change Agents Across Sectors to Improve Health and Equity in Rural Communities
Author(s): Michael Meit
Date: 02/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis
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National Trends in Drinking Water Quality Violations
Examines patterns in health-related violations in the Safe Drinking Water Act by analyzing data from 17,900 community water systems from 1982-2015. Identifies vulnerability factors in communities and water systems. Includes a rural and urban comparison of total violations by water system, and provides county-level information on violation hot spots and spatial trends in community water systems.
Author(s): Maura Allaire, Haowei Wu, Upmanu Lall
Citation: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 115(9), 2078-2083
Date: 02/2018
Type: Document
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Remarks of Commissioner Mignon Clyburn (as prepared): National Rural Health Association
Statement given at the February 2018 National Rural Health Association (NRHA) Policy Institute. Discusses the goals of the Connect2Health Task Force: to understand the future interplay of broadband, technology, and health policy and to ensure the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stays ahead of the innovation curve. Highlights the FCC's focus of broadband deployment to provide a foundation for health and describes a broadband-enabled project in Appalachian Kentucky created to provide healthcare services to cancer patients.
Author(s): Mignon Clyburn
Date: 02/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Federal Communications Commission
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Navajo Wellness Model: Keeping the Cultural Teachings Alive to Improve Health
Describes a wellness model curriculum developed by the Navajo Area Indian Health Service along with cultural experts and traditional healers to increase health literacy and self-management in healthcare and public health settings. The curriculum uses traditional Navajo methods of teaching healthy behaviors and is designed to improve the knowledge and understanding of healthcare and public health providers on Navajo values about health within the family, community, and environment.
Author(s): Marie Nelson
Date: 01/2018
Type: Document
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Reducing Depressive Symptoms Through Behavioral Activation in Churches: A Hybrid-2 Randomized Effectiveness-Implementation Design
Details a study on an intervention partnering with churches to address depressive symptoms in rural African American communities. Details the stressors that commonly affect African Americans, the ways faith communities can offer support, and how church leaders can work with mental health professionals to improve mental health outcomes.
Author(s): Tiffany Haynes, Jerome Turner, Johnny Smith, et al.
Citation: Contemporary Clinical Trials, 64, 22-29
Date: 01/2018
Type: Document
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Scaling up HCV Prevention and Treatment Interventions in Rural USA – Model Projections for Tackling an Increasing Epidemic
Highlights a study on the rise in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections in rural people who inject drugs (PWID) and the necessary interventions to reduce HCV outbreaks in rural communities. Focuses on a rural county in Indiana and evaluates the medication-assisted treatment (MAT) efficacy, syringe-services program (SSP) efficacy, and the PWID population size of the intervention, among other factors.
Author(s): Hannah Fraser, Jon Zibbell, Thomas Hoerger, et al.
Citation: Addiction, 113(1), 173-182
Date: 01/2018
Type: Document
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Creating a Culture of Health in Rural West Virginia: State Rural Health Plan 2018-2022
Presents a state plan representing the vision and goals for the health and well-being of people in rural West Virginia as identified by healthcare advocates within the state. Key health conditions and health indicators are discussed, including behavioral health, cardiovascular disease, lung disease, obesity, and social determinants of health. Priorities to support positive change are focused on improvements in the following areas: access to healthcare, health outcomes, workforce development, and community engagement.
Date: 01/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: West Virginia Bureau for Public Health, West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, West Virginia State Office of Rural Health
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Community Engaged Cumulative Risk Assessment of Exposure to Inorganic Well Water Contaminants, Crow Reservation, Montana
Describes a community-based risk assessment to determine the health risks from consuming contaminated well water on the Crow Reservation in Montana. Includes discussion on how Crow families cope with poor quality well water and community well stewardship and water testing.
Author(s): Margaret J. Eggers, John T. Doyle, Myra J. Lefthand, et al.
Citation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(1), 76
Date: 01/2018
Type: Document
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A Scoping Review of Traditional Food Security in Alaska
Summarizes a literature review examining traditional foods and food security in rural Alaska. Discusses how the pillars of food security apply to traditional foods of Alaska Natives.
Author(s): Amanda Walch, Andrea Bersamin, Philip Loring, Rhonda Johnson, Melissa Tholl
Citation: International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 77(1)
Date: 01/2018
Type: Document
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Filling the Gap: USDA, Utility Co-ops Working to Bring Badly Needed Dental Services to Rural Iowans
Features the Fulfilling Iowa's Need for Dentists (FIND) program funded by USDA Rural Development via pass-through loans to several telephone and electric cooperatives to provide dental care to Iowa's rural communities. Details the development of FIND and the ways in which it helps place dentists in underserved areas.
Author(s): Darin Leach
Citation: Rural Cooperatives, 85(1), 12-13, 43
Date: 01/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: USDA Rural Development
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