Environmental Influences on Child Health: A Snapshot of Children's Health in the United States

Prior studies have shown that rural children have significantly different lived experiences and health than urban children and that rural children have higher all-cause mortality rates. Previous research from the University of South Carolina Rural Health Research Center found that compared to their urban counterparts, rural children are more likely to live in an impoverished county, to experience childhood trauma, to have poor oral health, and to be overweight or obese. Additionally, historic literature from the University of South Carolina Rural Health Research Center has found that rural children are less likely than urban children to have received preventive or dental care in the past year.

This project will use data for 2022 and 2023 from the following data sets to provide a comprehensive update on rural-urban differences in child health in the United States.

1. National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH)
2. Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)
3. American Housing Survey (AHS)
4. County-level list of Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) published by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
5. and 2018-2023 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research database (CDC WONDER)