Coronavirus in rural America (Part CLXIII): Rural-Urban Differences in Hospitalization and Mortality Rates for US COVID-19 Patients

Open Forum for Infectious Diseases published this study on "Evaluation of Rural-Urban Differences in Hospitalization and Mortality Rates for US COVID-19 Patients in the United States" on December 4, 2021.  Here's the abstract: 

Rural communities are among the most vulnerable and resource-scarce populations in the United States. Rural data is rarely centralized, precluding comparability across regions, and no significant studies have studied this population at scale. The purpose of this study is to present findings from the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) to provide insight into future research and highlight the urgent need to address health disparities in rural populations.

N3C Patient Distribution

This figure shows the geospatial distribution of the N3C COVID-19 positive population. N3C contains data from 55 data contributors from across the United States, 40 of whom include sufficient location information to map by ZIP Code centroid spatially. Of those sites, we selected 27 whose data met our minimum robustness qualifications for inclusion in our study. This bubble map is to scale with larger bubbles representing more patients. A. shows all N3C patients. B. shows only urban N3C distribution. C. shows the urban-adjacent rural patient distribution. D. shows the nonurban-adjacent rural patient distribution, representing the most isolated patients in N3C.  (emphasis added)