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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.

Race, Poverty, and Foster Care Placement in the United States: Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Perspectives
Examines how changes in poverty rate are related to foster care placements for Black and White children. Utilizes longitudinal data from 2000 to 2015 to analyze related socio-ecological factors and includes statistics on poverty, foster care admissions rates, and child population, further broken down according to urbanicity.
Author(s): Fred Wulczyn, Xiaomeng Zhou, Jamie McClanahan, et al.
Citation: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(16), 6572
Date: 08/2023
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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
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Sociodemographic and Geographic Risk Factors for All-Cause Mortality in Patients with COPD
Analyzes factors related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mortality while considering both individual characteristics and community risk factors. Examines 2021 COPD patient data according to sex, race/ethnicity, comorbidities, area deprivation index, and location by highly rural, rural, and urban.
Author(s): C Robichaux, J Aron, CH Wendt, et al.
Citation: International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, 18, 1587-1593
Date: 07/2023
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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
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Chartbook: Geographic Distribution of Children and Child Care and Early Education Providers in 2012 and 2019
Examines supply of child care and early education services compared to demand in rural and urban areas. Includes information on children's participation in center-based care and several types of home-based care.
Date: 05/2023
Sponsoring organization: Administration for Children and Families
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Persistent Poverty in Counties and Census Tracts
Examines persistent poverty, defined as a community with at least 20% poverty for over 30 years, in U.S. counties and census tracts. Utilizes Census and American Community Survey (ACS) poverty estimates that are compared against other datasets. Includes persistent poverty counties, census tracts, and percentages of the population by state, as well as maps of geographical areas in the U.S. depicting persistent poverty census tracts.
Author(s): Craig Benson, Alemayehu Bishaw, Brian Glassman
Date: 05/2023
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Census Bureau
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Landscape of the Health Informatics Workforce: Rapid Response Brief
Focuses on the clinical informatics and public health, population health, and social service informatics subdomains of the health informatics workforce. Mentions resource hubs that serve rural communities by providing guidelines, toolkits, screening tools, and other resources. Examines social determinants of health and gives examples of clinical informatics work that can improve access to care for rural and underserved populations. Features statistics on physicians certified in clinical informatics from 2013-2022.
Author(s): Cynthia LeRouge, Shahida Shahrir, Bianca K Frogner
Date: 04/2023
Sponsoring organization: Center for Health Workforce Studies
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Income and Rural–Urban Status Moderate the Association Between Income Inequality and Life Expectancy in US Census Tracts
Examines how income inequality and life expectancy (LE) are impacted by socioeconomic status (SES) and rural versus urban status at the census-tract level. Utilizes 2010-2015 data to examine the relationship of LE to SES, urbanicity, and other sociodemographic factors. Presents the data through descriptive statistics, figures, and graphs.
Author(s): Steven A. Cohen, Caitlin C. Nash, Erin N. Byrne, Mary L. Greaney
Citation: Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition, 42, 24
Date: 03/2023
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Integration of Case-Based Dialogue to Enhance Medical Students' Understanding of Using Health Communication to Address Social Determinants of Health
Examines the impact of case-based social determinants of health (SDOH) curriculum on third year medical student knowledge related to SDOH and willingness to care for patients with various cultural differences and needs. Analyzes pre- and post-test survey answers from 640 medical students about their SDOH perceptions and knowledge, including confidence levels in working with rural and medically underresourced patients.
Author(s): Jalysa King, Jennifer Taylor
Citation: Advances in Medical Education and Practice,14, 237-244
Date: 03/2023
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Your Neighborhood Matters: An Ecological Social Determinant Study of the Relationship Between Residential Racial Segregation And the Risk of Firearm Fatalities
Examines the impact of county-level social determinants of health (SDOH) on firearm fatalities. Analyzes 802 firearm fatalities that occurred in Wisconsin counties in 2019 and their relationship to SDOH, such as segregation, income inequality, community resilience, and rural versus urban classification. Includes county-level maps depicting geographic distribution of segregation and firearm fatalities per 100,000 people.
Author(s): Abdul R. Shour, Ronald Anguzu, Yuhong Zhou, et al.
Citation: Injury Epidemiology, 10, 14
Date: 03/2023
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Last Updated: 3/28/2025