Research Publications

Browse the full list of research publications from the Rural Health Research Centers.

Products – Freely accessible products include policy briefs, fact sheets, full reports, chartbooks, and interactive data websites.

Journal Articles – Articles in peer-reviewed journals may require a subscription or affiliation with a subscribing library. For these publications, Gateway lists the article citation, a brief summary, a link to additional information and access to the full-text of the article, if available.

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Five Most Recent Publications

• Rural Beneficiary Access to Medicare Advantage-Part D Plans
  Policy Brief
  RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis, Rapid Response to Requests for Rural Data Analysis
  Date: 08/2025
  This policy brief updates RUPRI's analysis of Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug Plans (MA-PDs) including enhanced benefit plan availability and variations in characteristics across metropolitan, micropolitan, and noncore areas.
• Rural/Urban Differences in Health, Health Care Use, and Barriers to Care for Postpartum and Parenting Women, 2006-2018
  Policy Brief
  University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Date: 08/2025
  The goal of this analysis was to describe rural/urban differences in health, health care utilization, and barriers to care for reproductive-age females, with specific focus on those who are parents of young children (ages 1-4) and those who are postpartum (gave birth in the last year).
• Supply, Distribution, and Access to Cardiologists, Neurologists, Oncologists, and Pulmonologists in the Rural and Urban U.S.
  Report
  WWAMI Rural Health Research Center
  Date: 08/2025
  This report describes the supply of four specialist physicians (cardiologists, neurologists, oncologists, and pulmonologists) in the rural U.S.
• An Assessment of Area-Level Vulnerability and Resilience Indices by Geography: A Rural-Urban Comparison
  Journal Article
  ETSU/NORC Rural Health Research Center
  Date: 07/2025
  Area-level vulnerability and resilience indices are widely used to address health needs by informing resource allocation and policy. Researchers found that indices differ from each other and by rurality, contributing to the growing body of evidence to inform the use and improvement of these indices.
• 2010-2022 County-Level Hospital-Based Obstetric Care Status
  Rural Maternal Health Data Support and Analysis Program, University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Date: 07/2025
  This data resource is a county-level dataset containing the county FIPS code, state, and an indicator of whether each United States county had hospital-based obstetrics care in each year, 2010-2022. It is available for download as an XLS file.