ArticleThe Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association2026
The association between residential relocation and mortality among Veterans with experience of housing instability in rural areas.
Article in The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeHousing instability deleteriously affects health outcomes (i.e., lack of access to care, premature mortality). Veterans experiencing housing instability in rural areas-which often lack housing options, transportation, and services-have greater odds of residential relocation compared to urban Veterans, and they most frequently relocate to urban areas. Urban relocation is associated with changes in health outcomes, including increased services use, but studies have not examined the association between residential relocation and mortality.
methodsThis study used Veterans Affairs electronic health record data for 28,058 Veterans who experienced housing instability at a rural residence and then, within 2 years, changed their residential location by ≥40 mi or from a rural-to-urban location. We assessed the risk of mortality during the 6 months following residential relocation, controlling for sociodemographics, baseline comorbid health conditions, and time-varying services use.
findingsOne-third of the rural Veterans experiencing housing instability had a rural-to-rural relocation (n = 7227), whereas the remaining had a rural-to-urban relocation (n = 17,375). Veterans with a rural-to-rural relocation were older and had more comorbid medical conditions compared to Veterans with rural-to-urban relocation; however, Veterans with a rural-to-urban relocation had 28% greater odds of mortality during the 6 months following residential relocation than Veterans with rural-to-rural relocation.
conclusionsRural-to-rural relocation was associated with reduced odds of mortality, even when controlling for services utilization, age, and baseline comorbidities. Future research should explore if and how remaining in rural environments is protective and identify ways to support care coordination following residential relocations among Veterans with experience of housing instability.
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.