Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen. Family physician Maxwell Self is doing his same old job for a new employer. For two decades he was a doctor with Mercy Hospital. But when Mercy packed up and left, a federally qualified health center moved to town — into the hospital building itself — and […]
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As virus slams rural California, many still pan restrictions
Brenda Luntey is openly violating California’s order to close her restaurant to indoor dining. But she wants her customers and critics to know she isn’t typically a rule-breaker. It’s a matter of survival. “This is my first episode of civil disobedience in my entire life. My whole family is in law enforcement. I’m a follow-the-rules […]
Peru facing rural COVID-19 disaster
A disaster is looming in Peru caused by COVID-19 as thousands return to their rural homes where there are limited resources and facilities, according to research carried out at the University of St Andrews. When COVID-19 struck Peru in March 2020, thousands of Peruvians chose to leave large cities and return to their community origins […]
As coronavirus surges again, researchers find mortality rates are highest in rural counties
In parts of the country where COVID-19 is surging, residents of rural counties are dying from coronavirus at higher rates than those in urban areas, according to a new health policy brief by the University of Cincinnati. Coronavirus infections are hitting rural parts of the United States previously spared, requiring a new approach to battling […]
Rural counties with access to obstetrics have healthier infant birth outcomes
Rural areas with local access to obstetrical care report better infant health outcomes, including lower infant mortality rates and fewer babies delivered underweight. The retrospective cohort study compared the birth outcomes of rural counties in Alabama with in-county obstetrical care to those without over a 12-year span from 2003 to 2017. Across all four outcome […]
Very rural elders receive fewest services
Older adults living in very rural settings are less likely than those living closer to urban centers to receive available services in health, nutrition and transportation, according to a new study by a Washington State University scientist. Raven Weaver, assistant professor in WSU’s Department of Human Development, and her coauthor Karen Roberto at Virginia Tech, […]
U.S. rural breast cancer patients must routinely travel long distances for treatment
The closing of rural hospitals and specialty care units is causing many people, including breast cancer patients, to seek treatment far from home. A study from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health recently found that U.S. rural breast cancer patients typically travel three times farther than urban women for radiation therapy to treat […]
Rural kids carrying handguns is ‘not uncommon’ and starts as early as sixth grade
Roughly one-third of young males and 1 in 10 females in rural communities have carried a handgun, reports a new University of Washington study. And, the study found, many of those rural kids started carrying as early as the sixth grade. “This is one of the first longitudinal studies of rural adolescent handgun carrying across […]
Rural America has a maternal mortality problem—midwives might help solve it
The sun is setting just as midwife Sheryl Shafer wraps up a long Thursday on the road visiting families in west Tennessee and Kentucky. She knows the patient on her last stop, a 21-year-old Amish woman in a two-story farmhouse without electricity, is a week and a half past her due date. The baby is […]
Radiation oncology workforce study indicates potential threat to rural cancer care access
The newest study of America’s radiation oncology workforce finds that gender and race gaps have narrowed slightly, although persistent and growing geographic disparities point to a need for more equity in access to radiation therapy care. The survey, which drew responses from more than 1,100 physicians across the country, finds that fewer radiation oncologists are […]