The Delta Region is made up of 252 counties/parishes near the lower Mississippi River in eight states (Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee). It has high rates of economic distress, persistent poverty, and markers for poor health outcomes. Of the 252 counties, 178 are rural/non-metro and 74 are urban/metro defined using 2020 Core Based Statistical Areas.

As most of the region is rural, the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is one of the federal agencies investing in the health of the people of the Delta Region by enhancing health care delivery and addressing unmet health care needs and prevalent health disparities. Examples of HRSA grant programs in the Delta Region include the Delta Region Community Health Systems Development Project, the Delta States Rural Development Network Grant Program, and the Delta Region Rural Health Workforce Training Program.

This project assists with these and other initiatives by providing county-level cancer and cardiovascular health data and maps for rural residents in the Delta Region.

Publications

• Cardiovascular & Cancer Rates for the Rural Delta Region: Rural Delta Region Map Tool
  North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center
  Date: 08/2021
  The Rural Delta Region Map Tool is an interactive tool that shows 13 health measures for people in Delta Region counties/parishes. It can be used to compare rates of cancer and cardiovascular disease by county, by rural-urban status, to peer counties, to the national average, and to national quartiles.