Rural citizens in the United States have less access to the full range of essential public health services than their urban counterparts. Many rural and frontier areas have no local county or city public health agency, and those public health departments that do serve rural areas have few (if any) staff with formal public health training. Although the rural population has many indicators of poor health status that beg for public health prevention programs, the low incomes and small tax bases in rural areas provide insufficient funds to local public health departments to address these needs.

The NRHA has formed a Public Health Issue Group, which is chaired by Michael Meit.  This group looks at issues that influence health status in rural America. Access is critical, but equal in importance are issues such as health behavior, environmental health, infectious disease surveillance and other issues of public health interests.  For more information on the issue group, contact Mr. Meit at: meit@imap.pitt.edu