This website is being reviewed for updates. Some information is offline. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Poverty

Closing the Opportunity Gap for Young Children
Discusses the factors that cause inequities and limited access to resources for young children, such as poverty, food insecurity, abuse and violence, lack of social and emotional safety, inadequate healthcare and schooling, and more. Discusses policy and practices aimed at reducing opportunity gaps, with a focus on historically disadvantaged populations, including those in rural areas.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
Date: 2023
Sponsoring organization: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
view details
America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2023
Provides a national and state-by-state overview of population health for older adults across 52 measures using data from 22 unique data sources. Covers social and economic factors, physical environment, clinical care, behaviors, and health outcomes. Highlights health disparities, including rural-urban disparities, across five categories of health. Includes state-by-state summaries and county-level maps for risk of social isolation by state.
Additional links: County-Level Maps for Risk of Social Isolation
Date: 2023
Sponsoring organization: United Health Foundation
view details
Intergenerational Poverty and Mobility Among Native Americans in the United States: Proceedings of a Workshop
Report aims to identify programs and policies to reduce intergenerational poverty among Native Americans. Discusses the structural and historical factors that contribute to intergenerational poverty and explores promising interventions for addressing those factors.
Additional links: Read Online
Author(s): Board on Children, Youth, and Families
Date: 2023
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
view details
An Updated Measure of Poverty: (Re)Drawing the Line
Examines the strengths and weaknesses of the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) and makes recommendations to update it to better reflect the resources available to households. Includes discussion of geographic variation in the cost of living in metropolitan versus nonmetro areas and the potential for a finer level of detail to reveal variations for expenses like housing and transportation.
Additional links: Read Online
Date: 2023
Sponsoring organization: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
view details
Community Sociodemographics and Rural Hospital Survival
Explores differences in specific community-level sociodemographic factors associated with the survival or closure of rural hospitals at risk of financial distress between 2010 and 2019. Examines the relationship between the risk of hospital closure and median family income, unemployment rate, uninsured rate, education, race, and more.
Author(s): Claudia A. Rhoades, Brian E. Whitacre, Alison F. Davis
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 2023(39), 643-655
Date: 2023
view details
Childhood Poverty, 2007 - 2023
Animated map series showing child poverty rates at the school district level from 2007 to 2023.
Date: 2023
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Census Bureau
view details
A Snapshot of Racial Inequities in Human Services Programs in Rural Contexts
Examines the need for human services across rural counties and broken down by racial/ethnic groups. Provides data on human services funding per person, unemployment rate, poverty rate, access to broadband, and access to vehicles by rural Black, Hispanic, Native, and White citizens. Includes a 2018 county-level U.S. map that depicts rural counties with high needs for human services.
Author(s): Emma Ward, James Murdoch, Neel Chakraborti
Date: 12/2022
Sponsoring organizations: 2M Research, Administration for Children and Families
view details
Comparing Enhancements to Well-Child Visits in the Prevention of Obesity: Encircle Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial
Analyzes care delivery models aimed at preventing obesity in disadvantaged preschool children living in rural Pennsylvania. Reports on 2,025 parents and their preschool-aged children recruited in the ENCIRCLE (patiEnt-cliNic-Community Integration to prevent obesity in Rural preschool ChiLdrEn) trial, which tests the effectiveness of enhanced well-child visits (WCVs) that include obesity prevention tools.
Author(s): Lisa Bailey-Davis, Amy M. Moore, Melissa N. Poulsen, et al.
Citation: BMC Public Health, 22, 2429
Date: 12/2022
view details
Food Insecurity in the Rural United States: An Examination of Struggles and Coping Mechanisms to Feed a Family among Households with a Low-Income
Analyzes the barriers and strategies of low-income rural families around food insecurity. Reports on interviews with 153 primary grocery shoppers about their experiences related to affordability and adequacy of meals, difficulty in obtaining food and managing household food needs, and more. Includes demographic information about participants as well as selected quotes relating to their food insecurity experiences.
Author(s): Carmen Byker Shanks, Lauri Andress, Annie Hardison-Moody, et al.
Citation: Nutrients, 14(24), 5250
Date: 12/2022
view details
Experiences with Health Care Access, Cost, and Coverage: Findings from the 2022 KFF Women's Health Survey
Presents findings from the 2022 KFF Women's Health Survey of 5,145 women ages 18-64 who were asked about their health status, use of prescription medications, accessibility to healthcare, their selected care sites, check-ups, use of telemedicine, and health coverage and costs. Includes data on telehealth services provided by urban and rural location.
Author(s): Michelle Long, Brittni Frederiksen, Usha Ranji Alina Salganicoff, Karen Diep
Date: 12/2022
Sponsoring organization: KFF
view details