Casey Balio, PhD, Research Assistant Professor at East Tennessee State University's Center for Rural Health Research and part of the ETSU/NORC Rural Health Research Center, is the featured guest on the May edition of the “Exploring Rural Health” podcast.
In the interview, Balio discussed the RHERC’s recent study on the use of the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) in rural health research.
“The ADI is a really important area-level measure of deprivation that is being used by federal, state, and local agencies as well as healthcare organizations to align resources with need. As such, the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORPH) was interested in learning more about what we know and don’t know about the ADI,” said Balio. “This discussion really just scratches the surface of what we’re finding in this space, and we can’t wait to share more soon.”
The RHERC policy brief co-authored by Balio, “Use of the Area Deprivation Index and Rural Applications in the Peer-Reviewed Literature,” is now available on the Rural Health Research Gateway.
The “Exploring Rural Health” podcast is available on the Rural Health Information Hub.
The ETSU/NORC Rural Health Research Center is a partnership of the ETSU Addiction Science Center, the ETSU Center for Rural Health Research, and the NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis and is one of eight federally funded rural health research centers in the country. RHERC’s mission is to develop strategies and recommendations for policymakers, rural health care providers, and rural communities to mitigate the individual and community-level impacts of substance use disorder (SUD), improve access to health care and social services, and improve population health.