Rural Public Research Articles

Bibliometric Analysis of the Role of Nurses in Addressing Urban and Rural Public Health Disparities

This bibliometric analysis study explores the thematic and collaborative dynamics within the field of public health research, particularly focusing on the period from 2000 to 2024. Utilizing VOSviewer, we analyzed keyword occurrences and authorship data to identify central themes and the interconnections between researchers. The analysis reveals a strong emphasis on health disparities, with specific attention to access, quality, and policy issues. The emergence of COVID-19 as a significant research theme highlights the field's responsiveness to global health crises and its impact on existing inequalities. The study also maps out key contributors and their collaboration patterns, providing insights into the intellectual structure and potential gaps in the research community. Our findings emphasize the need for interdisciplinary approaches and greater collaboration to address the multifaceted challenges of global health disparities effectively.

The Construction and Application of Evaluation Index System of Rural Public Digital Cultural Service Accessibility

ABSTRACTThis research takes the accessibility of rural public digital cultural services as the research object. Based on the accessibility framework and system evaluation theory, an evaluation index system is constructed through investigation and analysis. Firstly, through on‐site investigation and interviews, explore service accessibility factors and establish a feature factor model; Secondly, based on industry norms, an evaluation system was constructed that includes primary, secondary, and tertiary indicators, and was revised and validated through empirical analysis; Finally, the AHP fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method was applied to study the indicator system. The results indicate that the accessibility of public digital cultural services is good, but still needs to be improved, and improvement path suggestions are proposed from the aspects of resource supply, services, organization and management, etc. The research enriches the evaluation system of public cultural services and provide reference for the government to improve public digital cultural services.

Female Agency in Rural Public Participation: Actions and Strategies for Empowering Social Organizations in Dilemmas

Current grassroots social governance in China advocates the participation of multiple entities, represented by social organizations. However, social organizations often face mismatches between supply and demand, low levels of specialization, and a lack of resources and talent when providing services. Given previous research exploring the institutional environment of social organizations, this paper focuses on the agency of actors within these organizations and their interactive relationship with the organization. It finds that rural women can become enablers of the growth of social organizations in distress and intermediary roles for promoting local social operations, which contests the stereotype about womens vulnerability. This article compares, inducts and analyzes six empirical cases based on the "Role-Agency" framework, and categorizes rural womens roles and agencies in empowering social organizations in distress into four groups. The analysis of these action strategies will provide social organizations with more paths to improve service models and promote social advocacy.

Development of an Agent-Based Model to Evaluate Rural Public Policies in Medellín, Colombia

Development of an Agent-Based Model to Evaluate Rural Public Policies in Medellín, Colombia

Research on Child-Friendly Evaluation and Optimization Strategies for Rural Public Spaces

Public spaces are essential for the implementation of child-friendly principles and the development of child-friendly cities, with positive and healthy environments playing a crucial role in supporting children’s well-being and development. However, existing research on child-friendly public spaces predominantly targets economically developed urban areas with robust public service infrastructure, often neglecting rural areas with less advanced facilities. This study utilizes grounded theory and qualitative analysis to propose a child-friendly public space evaluation framework specifically for rural settings. The framework includes four primary indicators—safety, accessibility, comfort, and multifunctionality—and 19 secondary indicators, such as facility safety and plant safety. An empirical investigation was conducted in Baishoupu Town, a child-friendly pilot area within Changsha, China, which is designated as a United Nations Child-Friendly City, and the study encompassed an analysis of 11 rural villages within this area. The findings reveal that while Baishoupu Town demonstrates a relatively high level of child-friendly development, there is significant disparity among individual villages. Key determinants affecting the child-friendliness of rural public spaces include the type of rural industry, per capita income levels, and the degree of policy support. Specifically, the advancement of public service infrastructure and the tourism sector significantly influence the primary indicators. Moreover, while rural road infrastructure is positively correlated with accessibility, the presence of through traffic adversely affects safety indicators. Based on these insights, this study recommends enhancing child-friendliness in rural public spaces through strategic village planning, spatial design improvements, and ensuring child participation. This research provides valuable insights for government policy development and implementation and offers a replicable framework for child-friendly public space development in rural areas globally.

Drifting further apart? Europe's trends of urban-rural political polarisation should not be overstated

Urban-rural polarisation in political attitudes is widely argued to have become a distinctive feature of many Western democracies. Yet, have urban-rural gaps grown over time, as is often suggested? And, if so, do trends in this regard differ across countries? We address these questions leveraging individual-level data from over 300,000 respondents from the European Social Survey over the period 2002-2020 in 25 countries. Overall, we do find evidence of moderate divergence in outlooks between more urban and more rural publics, examining in particular trust towards the EU and views on migration. We also find that there is divergence in terms of feelings of trust in relation to the political system and levels of satisfaction with democracy since the early 2010s, most likely because of the financial and sovereign debt crises. But these gaps have significantly reduced more recently. Furthermore, trends are heterogenous across countries. Overall, this paper demonstrates that value polarisation along the urban density divide should not be over emphasised as divergence between urban and rural Europe is more moderate than in the US, and very issue-based and country-specific.

Factors Affecting the Expected Outcomes of Implementing Comprehensive Sexuality Education on Learners in Rural Public Secondary Schools of Muchinga Province of Zambia

The study was focused on the factors affecting the expected outcomes of implementing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in rural public secondary schools of Muchinga province of Zambia. The main objectives was to identify factors that affects the implementation of Comprehensive Sexuality Education. The research employed Qualitative method. It used interpretivism paradigm. It employed descriptive design which described the state of affairs of Comprehensive Sexuality Education as it existed at the time when the research was conducted. The study sample comprised of headteachers, teachers, parents and learners with the total number of 384. It employed three instruments namely; semi structured interviews for headteachers, teachers, parents and learners, the close ended questionnaires administered on teachers, parents and learners whereas observation checklist was on used to teachers and learners. The study identified various factors for implementing Comprehensive Sexuality Education such as; learners having difficulties in sharing experiences to friends who have already been exposed to unhealthy and unsafe sexual experiences, inaccurate information on sexuality matters found on social media, difficulty in understanding some sexuality terms in English, being uncomfortable when learning about private parts which sounds like insults, learners fail to abstain from sexual intercourse after learning instead they opted to experiment what they were learning, inappropriate dress code among some female learners and teachers, inappropriate cultural and traditional practices, such as elopement. Parents who have difficulties in understanding why their children are learning Comprehensive Sexuality Education should be counselled and sensitized by school leaders. It is highly recommended that, the government should develop a deliberate policy of teaching Comprehensive Sexuality Education as a standalone subject and intensify the training of teachers in Comprehensive Sexuality Education using cascading model during in-service and pre-service trainings. The future recommendation from this study was that, A research on exploring the factors affecting the implementation of Comprehensive Sexuality Education and its expected outcomes in selected rural public secondary schools of Muchinga province of Zambia would be worthwise in order to establish the expected outcomes on learners. The same research should be conducted in other rural settings of Muchinga Province.

Assessment of Teacher Competence and Quality Delivery of Comprehensive Sexuality Lessons in Rural Public Secondary Schools of Muchinga Province of Zambia

The study focused on assessing teacher competence and quality delivery of Comprehensive Sexuality lessons in rural public secondary schools of Muchinga province of Zambia. The main objective was to ascertain the level of teacher competency in quality delivery of Comprehensive Sexuality Education lessons. The research employed Quantitative method. It used positivism paradigm. It employed descriptive design which described the state of affairs of Comprehensive Sexuality Education as it existed at the time when the research was conducted. The study sample comprised of the total number of 62 teacher respondents. It employed the close ended questionnaire. The study ascertained that Some teachers were competent, while others were not because the lowest mean score of 1.13 was for "I attended School Based Continuous Professional Development in Comprehensive Sexuality Education" and the highest mean score 1.77 was for "I trained through cascading model.” the statistical tests were significant because the difference between two mean was equated to less than 0.05, the regression resulted indicated that more teachers were trained using School Based Continuous Professional Development while a few teachers were trained using Cascading model which is the better way of training teachers for Comprehensive Sexuality Education. The recommendations for this research were that; Comprehensive Sexuality Education should be implemented in all schools, school leadership should champion the implementation of it, School leaders should ensure the development of deliberate Comprehensive Sexuality Education school policy in all schools and facilitate adherence to its implemented. School leaders to intensify more School Based Continuous Professional Development meetings in order to capacity build teachers in Comprehensive Sexuality Education and teachers should continue using subjective pedagogical skills which makes learners freely share their sexuality experiences. It is highly recommended that, the government should develop a deliberate policy of teaching Comprehensive Sexuality Education as a standalone subject and continue training teachers in Comprehensive Sexuality Education during in-service and pre-service trainings. The future recommendation from this study was that, assessments of teacher competence and quality delivery of comprehensive sexuality lessons in selected public secondary schools of Muchinga province of Zambia research should be conducted in other secondary schools of Muchinga Province of Zambia.

Live from Here: Comparing the Programming of Rural and Urban Public Radio Stations

ABSTRACT This paper is an examination of the vitality of U.S. public radio stations in rural areas. Previous empirical research suggests that the increased presence of commercial underwriting and listener donations (collectively referred to as “listener sensitive income”) has influenced National Public Radio and its local affiliate stations to behave in a way that more closely resembles commercial radio. This shift may have come at the expense of the initial intent and mission of public broadcasting which is to add diversity to the marketplace of ideas, serve underserved audiences, and most relevant to this study, provide a service that is reflective of local communities. This study analyzes data from a nationally representative sample (N = 178) of the 408 unique local NPR stations to determine if greater reliance on market-based funding sources is associated with a shift away from the mission of public radio in terms of its programming. The analysis suggested that rural public stations offer more overall diversity of programming, and specifically are more likely to offer minority-oriented programming, thus suggesting that rural stations have not become as commercialized as their urban counterparts.

The Solutions in Health Analytics for Rural Equity Across the Northwest (SHARE-NW) Dashboard for Health Equity in Rural Public Health: Usability Evaluation.

Given the dearth of resources to support rural public health practice, the solutions in health analytics for rural equity across the northwest dashboard (SHAREdash) was created to support rural county public health departments in northwestern United States with accessible and relevant data to identify and address health disparities in their jurisdictions. To ensure the development of useful dashboards, assessment of usability should occur at multiple stages throughout the system development life cycle. SHAREdash was refined via user-centered design methods, and upon completion, it is critical to evaluate the usability of SHAREdash. This study aims to evaluate the usability of SHAREdash based on the system development lifecycle stage 3 evaluation goals of efficiency, satisfaction, and validity. Public health professionals from rural health departments from Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Alaska were enrolled in the usability study from January to April 2022. The web-based evaluation consisted of 2 think-aloud tasks and a semistructured qualitative interview. Think-aloud tasks assessed efficiency and effectiveness, and the interview investigated satisfaction and overall usability. Verbatim transcripts from the tasks and interviews were analyzed using directed content analysis. Of the 9 participants, all were female and most worked at a local health department (7/9, 78%). A mean of 10.1 (SD 1.4) clicks for task 1 (could be completed in 7 clicks) and 11.4 (SD 2.0) clicks for task 2 (could be completed in 9 clicks) were recorded. For both tasks, most participants required no prompting-89% (n=8) participants for task 1 and 67% (n=6) participants for task 2, respectively. For effectiveness, all participants were able to complete each task accurately and comprehensively. Overall, the participants were highly satisfied with the dashboard with everyone remarking on the utility of using it to support their work, particularly to compare their jurisdiction to others. Finally, half of the participants stated that the ability to share the graphs from the dashboard would be "extremely useful" for their work. The only aspect of the dashboard cited as problematic is the amount of missing data that was present, which was a constraint of the data available about rural jurisdictions. Think-aloud tasks showed that the SHAREdash allows users to complete tasks efficiently. Overall, participants reported being very satisfied with the dashboard and provided multiple ways they planned to use it to support their work. The main usability issue identified was the lack of available data indicating the importance of addressing the ongoing issues of missing and fragmented public health data, particularly for rural communities.

The Role of Rural Public Libraries in Empowering and Developing the Rural Community

The Role of Rural Public Libraries in Empowering and Developing the Rural Community

Evaluation of Cognition of Rural Public Space Based on Eye Tracking Analysis

Amid the current global trend toward urbanization, there is a growing need for an improved quality of life. While rural public spaces are essential components of community life, their design and planning have traditionally focused on material aspects, neglecting the spiritual well-being of rural residents. This study uses the public spaces of Huixingtou Village in Handan City, Hebei Province, China, as an example to investigate the impact of five key elements within rural public spaces (architecture, streets, greenery, nodes, and landmarks) on individual emotions and perceptions, exploring how these elements contribute to the satisfaction of individuals’ spiritual lives. Initially, we compared the disparities among these elements concerning perceptual dimensions (functionality, technology, and aesthetics) and emotional dimensions (sense of achievement, safety, and well-being). This analysis revealed significant variations in emotional and perceptual dimensions influenced by different rural public space elements. Subsequently, we examined the associations between these elements and objective physiological response data from participants, using eye-tracking technology to delve into the interplay between emotions and perceptions. The results indicate that distinct rural public space elements elicit specific emotional responses, with visual elements and features exerting a pronounced influence on emotional reactions. This in-depth analysis provides comprehensive recommendations for emotional design strategies. Ultimately, this study furnishes emotionally driven design strategies for rural public spaces based on objective data, offering practical guidance for sustainable development and the enhancement of rural public space quality. These findings have significant implications for creating more attractive, inclusive, and sustainable rural spatial environments, addressing the needs of individuals seeking a high and enhanced quality of life.

Towards a Communication Ecology in the Life of Rural Senior Citizens: How Rural Public Spaces Influence Community Engagement

The dilemma of weak participation and non-participation of rural communities is a universal topic of global development. The rural public space is an important field for local residents to interact, communicate, and engage with each other, and is an important place for the sustainable development of rural areas. However, previous studies have neglected to understand the intrinsic connection between rural public space and community participation from the perspective of community communication ecology. Based on the concept of age-friendly communities, this study’s fieldwork in rural Shanghai, China, using the methodology of grounded theory, found that physical, social, and psychological factors all have an impact on community engagement among rural residents. Specifically, environmental quality, facility support, community networks, social participation, call to action, place attachment, spatial perception, and self-transformation are identified as the core elements that significantly influence community engagement among rural residents. This study further reveals that the multiple factors influencing community engagement among rural residents are complex and interdependent rather than operating independently. Spatial support, communicative triggers, and symbolic identification, respectively, operate at the technological level (physical–social factors), social level (social–psychological factors), and discursive level (psychological–physical factors) to promote community engagement among older adults in Chinese rural areas. Through this research, we hope to further the realization of rural civic engagement and the sustainability of local communities and to provide scholarly insights into the promotion of more equitable community life.

Research on the Construction Path of Rural Public Cultural Space from the Perspective of Rural Revitalization---- Based on the investigation and thinking of the Rural Cultural Auditorium in Zhejiang

In the new era, solving "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" problems is the top priority of the Party's work. We should adhere to the important measure of "rural revitalization strategy". Rural revitalization requires both shaping and casting the soul. Cultural revitalization is not only an important part of rural revitalization, but also the source and soul of vitality to realize comprehensive rural revitalization. As an important carrier and external manifestation of rural cultural revitalization, rural public cultural space plays an important role in the construction of rural spiritual civilization. Based on this, through field investigation, questionnaire survey and data analysis of the representative rural public cultural space carrier-rural cultural auditorium in Zhejiang Province, this paper analyzes the achievements and problems of the construction of rural public cultural space in Zhejiang Province, which are mainly reflected from the following aspects. In view of three kinds of problems in the process of constructing rural public cultural space, they are unreasonable spatial planning and resource utilization in physical dimension, incomplete mechanism and shallow value connotation in spiritual dimension, as well as one-way output of culture and single and isolated participants in social dimension, this paper puts forward corresponding construction paths and methods. First, we should scientifically plan space and integrate spatial resources in the process of constructing physical space; second, we should build a long-term mechanism and create cultural symbols in the process of constructing spiritual space; third, in the process of constructing social space, we should realize the transformation to two-way interaction mode and cooperate with multiple power subjects to participate in the construction of rural public cultural space.

Transportation System and the Improvement of Urban Vehicular Flow in the District of Huánuco-Perú 2022

The objective of this research is to propose a public transport reorganization system that allows the improvement of urban vehicle flow. The lack of adequate transportation infrastructure and the existing disorder in the services provided by collective car, Microbus, Rural Public Transportation Van (Combi), Coaster, and mototaxis generate congestion in public transportation, especially during peak hours, resulting in environmental and noise pollution. The research was structured into four stages: data collection on the public and private transportation network, importing and creating the transportation network in the urban area of the Huánuco district, zoning and connectivity of the study area, and finally, creating the origin/destination (O/D) matrix for public transportation, supported by digital tools (ArcGIS 10.5, AutoCAD 2018, Excel 2017). To meet the demand of 135,343 passengers from South to North and 118,958 from North to South, the proposal includes establishing one main route and seven feeder routes, requiring 422 buses and road infrastructure, as depicted in the proposal This system will have exclusive lanes to operate the Mass Transit System, allowing it to accommodate 59% of users who prefer using public transportation. This proposal aims to offer an efficient and high-quality transportation system.

Flowing perceptions: Exploring secondary students’ perceptions of water

Adolescents’ (i.e., high school students) opinions and preferences are important and less likely to be influenced by political and social norms, especially considering natural resource and climate related issues. Therefore, this study sought to identify and understand the perceptions of secondary students related to water issues and conservation practices utilizing a non-experimental survey research design. The majority (53.8%) of Oklahoma secondary students participating in this study believed water was of concern in the state. The primary water issues affecting Oklahoma according to secondary students (n = 93) were clean drinking water, water for agriculture, water for aquatic habitats, wastewater treatment improvement, and water quality monitoring to detect pollution improvement. Students’ perceptions of water quantity and quality varied across groups based on their primary source of drinking water (i.e., Private Supply, Bottled Water, Municipal Public Supply, or Rural Public Supply). It is imperative for water-related curriculum to be developed for delivery in secondary classrooms across the state. Future research should consider the perceptions of students nationwide related to water and natural resource conservation.

Exploring Ways and Mechanisms for Farmers' Cooperatives to Participate in Rural Public Services

From the perspective of the path and mechanisms of rural integration, this article explores the logic behind the integration of cooperatives into rural governance, using the Hongyuan Farmers' Cooperative in Binchuan County, Dali City, Yunnan Province, as a case study.By leading villagers in development initiatives and embedding itself culturally and socially, the cooperative uses its organisational advantages to promote the healthy economic growth of villages and foster harmonious livelihoods among villagers. Through specific benefit-sharing mechanisms, the cooperative provides governance resources to the village collective, thereby strengthening the community's governance capacity. As the development of the farmers' cooperative progresses, the joint development of rural economic and public governance goals leads to the gradual formation of a new rural governance community.Practical experience shows that integrating the institutional strengths of farmers' cooperatives into rural governance, coupled with internal and external policy management, reshapes the governance structure of different rural governance units. This becomes a new direction for promoting the modernisation of rural governance systems and governance capacities. In essence, this article highlights how the cooperative, by integrating itself culturally and economically into the village, not only promotes economic growth but also empowers villagers to live harmoniously. Moreover, the incorporation of the cooperative's institutional strengths into rural governance redefines the structure of rural management units, suggesting a promising way to modernise rural governance systems.

Research on Digital Rural Construction and Public Service Supply: Taking the Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangsu as an Example

Digital rural construction is an important means to achieve the rural revitalization strategy and an effective way to improve the supply level of rural public services. This article takes the Anhui Zhejiang Jiangsu region as an example to analyze the current situation, operational mechanisms, development difficulties, and advantages of public service supply under the background of digital rural construction. It proposes the path selection of public service supply under digital rural construction, including formulating quality implementation standards for digitalization of rural public services, constructing a rural public service data sharing mechanism, strengthening the construction of digital infrastructure for rural public services Promoting the deep integration of digital technology and rural public service elements, and improving the quality evaluation mechanism for digitizing rural public services, aiming to provide some suggestions for the construction of digital rural areas and the supply of rural public services.

Rural Public Expenditure and Poverty Alleviation in India: A Spatial Econometric Analysis

Rural Public Expenditure and Poverty Alleviation in India: A Spatial Econometric Analysis

Study on the Development Path of Rural Public Cultural Space in the Context of Rural Revitalization Strategy

Study on the Development Path of Rural Public Cultural Space in the Context of Rural Revitalization Strategy