About | Interdisciplinary Network on Rural Population Health and Aging (INRPHA)

The Interdisciplinary Network on Rural Population Health and Aging in the University of Minnesota School of Public Health offers funding for pilot projects, convenes a network of researchers, and provides data resources to support research that tackles pressing public health challenges for older populations in rural America.

INRPHA is a project affiliated with the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center.

INRPHA is funded by NIA grant 1R24AG089064-01 and led by Carrie Henning-Smith (University of Minnesota), Leif Jensen (Penn State), Shannon Monnat (Syracuse University), John Green (Mississippi State University), and Lori Hunter (University of Colorado Boulder). The current iteration of INRPHA builds on a previous five-year cycle.

Goals and Aims

INPRHA seeks to identify the following:

Trends and disparities in the health and well-being of middle-aged to older rural Americans, along with the mechanisms driving them
The resulting social, economic, political, and societal implications of population health and aging trends in rural areas
Relationships between economic livelihood, economic health, and physical health among middle-aged and older people in rural America
The effects of physical and social isolation on physical, mental, and cognitive health and aging in different rural areas
Where and how exposures to environmental change and/or climate hazards have affected rural middle-aged and older populations
Heterogeneity across rural people and places
Places where rural older adults are thriving