Research Alert: May 1, 2019

Rural Health Recaps

• Rural Obstetric Services: Access, Workforce, and Impact
• State of Rural Women's Healthcare Utilization and Health Indicators

Rural Health Research Centers are committed to providing timely, quality national research on the most pressing rural health issues, often exploring the same topics from various perspectives. Gateway has developed Rural Health Research Recaps to identify the key findings from all of the research centers on specific rural health topics. These resources (two of two) provide summaries of their most recent research on loss of hospital-based obstetric services, characteristics of communities without or losing OB services, and the state of women's healthcare utilization and health status.

Additional Resources of Interest:

• Access to Obstetric Services in Rural Counties Still Declining, With 9 Percent Losing Services, 2004-14
• Association Between Loss of Hospital-Based Obstetric Services and Birth Outcomes in Rural Counties in the United States
• Birth Volume and the Quality of Care in Rural Hospitals
• Challenges Related to Pregnancy and Returning to Work After Childbirth in a Rural, Tourism-Dependent Community
• Closure of Hospital Obstetric Services Disproportionately Affects Less-Populated Counties
• Ensuring Access to High-Quality Maternity Care in Rural America
• Implications of Rural Residence and Single Mother Status for Maternal Smoking Behaviors
• Maternity Care Nurse Workforce in Rural U.S. Hospitals
• Non-Medical Opioid Use Among Rural and Urban Pregnant Women, 2007-2014
• Obstetric Care Workforce in Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and Rural Non-CAHs
• Practical Implications: Opioid-Affected Births to Rural Residents
• Preventive Health Service Use Among Rural Women
• Rural Obstetric Workforce in U.S. Hospitals: Challenges and Opportunities
• Rural Women Delivering Babies in Non-Local Hospitals: Differences by Rurality and Insurance Status
• Rural-Urban Differences in Obstetric Care 2002-2010 and Implications for the Future
• State Variability in Access to Hospital-Based Obstetric Services in Rural U.S. Counties
• Use of the Emergency Department for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Among Women
• Why Are Obstetric Units in Rural Hospitals Closing Their Doors?
• More information from the Rural Health Information Hub's topic guides: Healthcare Access, Healthcare Workforce, Opioid Crisis, Rural Health Disparities, Substance Use and Misuse