A new report on cancer, An Update on Cancer Deaths in the United States, uses the latest cancer death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s National Center for Health Statistics. In 2020, almost 603,000 people died of cancer in the United States, but cancer death rates have continued to drop. Cancer deaths have dropped 27% over 20 years from 2001 to 2020. In other findings:

• Cancer remained the second leading cause of death, after heart disease in 2020. COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death.
• Lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer death, attributing to 23% of all cancer deaths.
• Cancer death rates differed by cancer type, sex, racial and ethnic group, and residence in an urban or rural county.

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The Flex Monitoring Team has released a new policy brief, Evaluating State Flex Program Population Health Activities.

The Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Program funds initiatives to improve the health of rural communities under Program Area 3: Population Health Improvement. This brief: (a) provides an overview of the expectations for Program Area 3; (b) summarizes State Flex Program (SFP) initiatives under this Program Area; (c) describes promising population health strategies implemented by SFPs; and (d) discusses outcome measurement issues for population health. It also describes a pathway to connect Flex Program population health efforts to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy Rural Hometown Initiative (HRHI), a five-year multi-program effort to address the factors driving rural disparities in heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury, chronic lower respiratory disease, and stroke.

A companion brief, An Inventory of State Flex Program Population Health Initiatives for Fiscal Years 2019-2023, provides a detailed description of population health initiatives proposed by the 45 SFPs.

A new study by researchers at Yale Cancer Center shows inhibition of the CECR2 gene prevents triple-negative breast cancer from advancing or metastasizing.  The discovery is an early step in finding new therapeutics for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), one of the most difficult disease sub-types to treat. The findings are published online February 4 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

To learn more, go to: New path to treat advanced triple-negative breast cancer — ScienceDaily

(Reprinted from Science Daily, February 4, 2022)

Broadband service improvements are needed across Pennsylvania, but the most significant need is among rural counties, according to a new analysis of broadband speed test data by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania.

The Center estimated broadband connectivity in Pennsylvania’s rural and urban counties using data from Measurement Lab (M-Lab), which measured the download and upload speeds of internet users throughout Pennsylvania. M-Lab is a consortium of research, industry, and public-interest partners providing verifiable measurement of global network performance.  The Center’s analysis included data from nearly 3 million upload and download speed tests taken throughout Pennsylvania in calendar year 2021. The data were provided to the Center by a collaboration between Exactly Labs and X-Lab, a non-partisan technology and policy institute at Penn State University.

Using these data, the Center identified areas that continue to lack significant access to broadband internet service. The analysis showed need across Pennsylvania for improved broadband service, but the counties most in need, and most eligible for aid under federal programs, are rural, and are in the Central Susquehanna Valley region (Juniata, Perry, and Snyder counties), por­tions of the Pennsylvania Wilds (Cameron, Clarion, Elk, and Forest counties), and the northeast (Susquehanna and Wyoming counties), as well as Greene County in the southwest and Crawford County in the northwest.

Get the report, Pennsylvania Broadband Access: A Speed Test Analysis.

In this policy brief from the RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis, researchers offer strategies to support the development of systems across health care and community-based organizations to improve access to behavioral health.

Access the brief at Meeting the Behavioral Health Needs of Farm Families in Times of Economic Distress.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are events of abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction occurring between birth and 17 years of age. Studies have found a direct correlation between ACEs and risky behaviors, poor physical health, and poor mental health outcomes in childhood. Positive childhood experiences (PCEs) include a nurturing, safe, and supportive environment allowing for health development and overall wellness. In prior research, rural-urban differences in PCEs have not been examined using all 50 states. This brief examines the types and counts of ACEs and PCEs for rural and urban children. The study also reports on the differences between rural and urban ACEs and PCEs across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Contact Information:

Elizabeth Crouch, PhD
Rural and Minority Health Research Center
Phone: 803.576.6055
crouchel@mailbox.sc.edu

Additional Resources of Interest:

• More information about the Rural and Minority Health Research Center
• More information from the Rural Health Information Hub’s topic guide: Rural Health Disparities

Kutztown University of Pennsylvania researchers Dr. Juliana Svistova, Dr. Ahyoung Lee, Dr. Christopher Harris, Dr. Juyoung Song, Jillian Horton, Barbe Fogarty, Julia Hansen, and Carlie Mills conducted the research, which assessed the demand for mental health services in rural Pennsylvania, with a focus on youth and the elderly.

The research also identified challenges rural populations face in accessing mental health care and identified options for improving and expanding mental health care services for underserved rural Pennsylvanians.

Read the executive summary here.

The full report can be accessed here: Access to Mental Health Services in Rural Pennsylvania

Evaluating the Rural HIV/AIDS Planning Program.  This policy brief from the Minnesota Rural Health Research Center examines the experiences of the first grantee cohort of the Rural HIV/AIDS Planning Program, that began work in 2020. The evaluation focuses on what helped or hindered the program’s implementation and on factors that can inform the planning for future grants.