ArticlePLOS global public health2023
Rural-urban disparities in health outcomes, clinical care, health behaviors, and social determinants of health and an action-oriented, dynamic tool for visualizing them.
Article in PLOS global public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 101 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
101 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Stress and retention challenges among rural and regional physicians: a mixed-methods systematic review and framework for action.Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Strategies to reach, involve, and maintain underserved populations in health intervention research: a systematic review of reviews.International journal for equity in health · 2026Pooled it
- Current status of cancer education in developing and developed countries: identifying the disparities and bridging the gap.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Implementation of Change Club action plans to promote built environment change in rural communities.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2026Trial
- Tailoring multidomain intervention programs to reduce cognitive and physical decline in older adults: Examining rural-urban differences in a nationwide cluster-randomized controlled trial.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2025Trial
- Access without approval: state-level determinants of peptide availability in sexual medicine.Sexual medicine · 2026Article
- Multilevel Analysis of Women's Perceptions of Community-Based Health Insurance on Healthcare Access in Sidama Region, Ethiopia: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Multilevel analysis of noncommunicable diseases and associated factors among Ethiopian adults: evidence from the 2024 STEPS survey.Tropical medicine and health · 2026Article
- Global burden of age-related macular degeneration: Trends, regional disparities, and projections from the Global Burden of Disease study 2021.Graefe's archive for clinical and experimental ophthalmology = Albrecht von Graefes Archiv fur klinische und experimentelle Ophthalmologie · 2026Article
- Access to Care and Self-Rated Health Status: Comparison of Rural and Urban Immigrants in the US.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Article
- Racial, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Disparities in Self-reported Health Among U.S. Adults, 2023-2024.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Machine Learning for the Interpretation of Serum Protein and Immunofixation Electrophoresis in Multiple Myeloma: A Scoping Review.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The role of rurality and area-level disadvantage in lifestyle risk factors and psychological well-being among cancer survivors: findings from the 2021 NCI HINTS-SEER.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2026Article
- Insufficient Sleep, Sleep Disturbance, and Napping in Australia: A Cross-Sectional Analysis From a Household-Based Panel Study.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- AI Meets Attitudes: Cross-Sectional Quantitative Study of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Alaska's Diverse Communities.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Exploring patients' experiences and perceived barriers to the utilization of rural comprehensive health centers among individuals living with chronic non-communicable diseases: A qualitative inquiry.Journal of public health research · 2026Article
- Collaborations between healthcare and public health in rural settings.Health affairs scholar · 2026Article
- Health Disparities in Orthobiologics: Factors Influencing Access to Platelet-Rich Plasma for Knee Osteoarthritis.Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine · 2026Article
- Young adult urbanicity, late midlife neighborhood disadvantage, and cognitive functioning in community-dwelling older men.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Perceptions of end-of-life care quality among bereaved closest contacts of community-dwelling older Australians: a cross-sectional survey of the ASPREE cohort.Research square · 2026Article
41 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
While rural-urban disparities in health and health outcomes have been demonstrated, because of their impact on (and intervenability to improve) health and health outcomes, we sought to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal inequities in health, clinical care, health behaviors, and social determinants of health (SDOH) between rural and non-rural counties in the pre-pandemic era (2015 to 2019), and to present a Health Equity Dashboard that can be used by policymakers and researchers to facilitate examining such disparities. Therefore, using data obtained from 2015-2022 County Health Rankings datasets, we used analysis of variance to examine differences in 33 county level attributes between rural and non-rural counties, calculated the change in values for each measure between 2015 and 2019, determined whether rural-urban disparities had widened, and used those data to create a Health Equity Dashboard that displays county-level individual measures or compilations of them. We followed STROBE guidelines in writing the manuscript. We found that rural counties overwhelmingly had worse measures of SDOH at the county level. With few exceptions, the measures we examined were getting worse between 2015 and 2019 in all counties, relatively more so in rural counties, resulting in the widening of rural-urban disparities in these measures. When rural-urban gaps narrowed, it tended to be in measures wherein rural counties were outperforming urban ones in the earlier period. In conclusion, our findings highlight the need for policymakers to prioritize rural settings for interventions designed to improve health outcomes, likely through improving health behaviors, clinical care, social and environmental factors, and physical environment attributes. Visualization tools can help guide policymakers and researchers with grounded information, communicate necessary data to engage relevant stakeholders, and track SDOH changes and health outcomes over time.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.