The Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal (RURAL) Cohort Study is a longitudinal research project in select rural counties in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi. We seek to enroll approximately 4,600 participants from these communities, examining several different aspects of their health, including heart and lung function.
Broad goals of the RURAL Cohort Study include:
- Identifying the frequency of and risk factors for heart and lung diseases in the RURAL communities
- Identifying unique factors contributing to health disorders in these communities — including psychosocial, economic, and familial factors — and how they interact together
- Identifying potential solutions by examining differences between higher and lower risk rural counties
We will collaborate with other scientists and maximize the use of the data collected, while also ensuring our participants’ data is secure. We have rigorous policies and systems in place to ensure all participants’ data meets federal security and confidentiality standards for data acquisition, transfer, storage, and analysis.
RURAL Cohort Study News
UVM Researchers Tackle Rural Health Disparities
April 2024
Members of the Biorepository and Assay Core (BRAC) at the University of Vermont discussed their involvement in the RURAL Cohort Study and how it was designed to uncover risk and protective factors for rural populations in the South.
The RURAL Study Participated in NHANES Webinar
March 2024
The RURAL Study participated in a webinar hosted by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in October 2023. The webinar included other state and local-level survey programs to discuss experiences in multimode health and nutrition data collection. The webinar addresses topics s …