Implementation of Reach Out and Read by Health Departments Increases Rural Access

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Early Literacy
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Reach Out and Read is an evidence-based early literacy program.
• The program expanded to Oklahoma County Health Departments in 2014.
• Early literacy is crucial for child development and school readiness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of implementing Reach Out and Read in Health Departments.
• To assess changes in program accessibility for at-risk children.
• To understand geographic and socioeconomic factors influencing program reach.

Main Methods:

• Classified Oklahoma program sites (Health Department vs. practice) and geocoded their locations.
• Mapped sites to census data for rural/urban and poverty/education level classification.
• Compared site accessibility to at-risk children based on defined criteria.

Main Results:

• 18 Health Department sites and 67 practice sites were analyzed.
• Health Department sites were more prevalent in rural areas (13/18 vs. 16/67 practices, p<0.001).
• Health Department sites were less likely in high poverty areas (10/18 vs. 61/67 practices, p<0.001) and showed no difference in low education areas (8/18 vs. 34/67 practices, p=0.8342).

Conclusions:

• Health Department implementation significantly increased rural Reach Out and Read program sites.
• Health Department locations were less concentrated in high poverty and low education census tracts.
• Utilizing Health Departments effectively expands the program's reach to underserved rural populations.