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There are several different methods for defining the differences between rural and urban areas. The following list is not exhaustive, but will give you a place to start.
This Rural Health Care chartbook is part of a family of documents and tools that support the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report (QDR)... This chartbook includes a summary of trends across measures of rural health care from the QDR and figures illustrating select measures of rural health care. A PowerPoint version is also available that users can download for presentations."