Research Alert: April 9, 2026

County-Level Differences in Health Professional Shortage Areas by Rurality, Age, and Disability Status

Access to quality health care is shaped in part by the availability of medical professionals for a given population and geography, and Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) designations can be a useful indicator to measure this provider access. While differences in health care access are well explained for both disability and rurality throughout literature using HPSAs, there are fewer studies which investigate differences in health care access at the intersection of rurality and disability across the working-age adult and older adult experience. This study addresses this gap.

Key Findings:

• Individuals in rural counties had less access to primary care providers compared to individuals in urban counties measured by primary care HPSA designations (84.2% vs 53.3%).
• Individuals in rural counties had less access to dental care providers compared to individuals in urban counties measured by dental care HPSA designations (73.8% vs 45.6%).
• Individuals in rural counties had less access to mental health care providers compared to individuals in urban counties measured by mental health care HPSA designations (93.5% vs 72.9%).
• As disability prevalence at the county level increased, health care professional shortages increased across these three measures.
• Rural counties with the highest disability prevalence had the highest rates of HPSAs with the 19-64 age category consistently demonstrating the highest rates in primary care (95.5%), dental care (91.0%), and mental health care (96.7%) shortages.

Additional Resources of Interest:

• More FORHP-funded research on Aging, Disabilities, Workforce
• More information about the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
• More information from the Rural Health Information Hub's topic guide: Community Supports for Rural Aging in Place and Independent Living