ArticleThe Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association2025
Trends in mental health care utilization in rural and nonrural areas, 2019-2023.
Article in The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Early Evidence of Geographic Variation in Medicare Participation Among Newly Eligible Mental Health Providers Following the 2024 Coverage Expansion.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2026Article
- Trends in mental health care utilization in rural and nonrural areas, 2019-2023.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThe recent increase in mental health care providers offering telehealth may improve access by reducing travel costs, particularly for those in rural areas. This paper seeks to understand how mental health care utilization changed from 2019 to 2023 for rural and nonrural areas.
methodsThis study uses data from the National Health Interview Survey for 2019 and 2021-2023 (n = 118,652). To adjust the utilization rates for sociodemographic factors, a probit model with survey weights is used. For each year, the adjusted percentage of rural and nonrural populations receiving any mental health care in the past year is reported. Changes in demographic characteristics of those receiving care are also discussed.
findingsThis study finds that both rural and nonrural populations experienced large increases in adjusted mental health care utilization rates from 2019 to 2023. Utilization rates in rural areas grew 3.72 percentage points, from 9.35% (95% CI: 8.85-9.84) in 2019 to 13.07% (95% CI: 12.86-13.28) in 2023. For nonrural areas, utilization rates increased 4.40 percentage points, from 12.06% (95% CI: 11.79-12.74) in 2019 to 16.46% (95% CI: 15.82-17.11) in 2023.
conclusionRural populations utilize less mental health care than nonrural populations, but both saw a substantial increase from 2019 to 2023. While telehealth may particularly benefit rural areas, these data suggest a larger increase in utilization for nonrural respondents. Future work is needed to better understand remote mental health care and rural populations.
Indexed as
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.