Barriers and Communications Preferences of Rural Populations: A Scoping Review

Enrollment in federal and state government programs is substantially lower for some eligible demographic subpopulations, particularly persons living in rural areas. Barriers faced when seeking program benefits may, in part, explain such differences in enrollment. The purpose of this paper is to identify barriers faced by prospective rural beneficiaries and how they prefer to communicate with government agencies and, in doing so, inform Social Security Administration (SSA) disability programs processes and communication strategies. This paper reports the results of a scoping literature review of government program communication strategies and how knowledge of SSA and other government programs varies by sociodemographic groups and what this says about barriers facing those in rural communities. Following a robust scoping review process — the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR), we identified articles that mentioned key phrases related to federal programs, communication, and rurality across four databases. English-language articles were included if published on topics related to our research questions between 2012 and 2022, reported on data collected in 2010 or later, and were about U.S. programs. Two of the authors each screened and reached consensus on 278 abstracts/titles and then 72 full texts to identify those that were in scope. As a result, we identified 16 articles for inclusion in this review. Three primary themes emerged: the knowledge and enrollment impact of changes to communication approaches; the importance of community-specific context; and barriers specific to communicating with rural residents and other underserved communities.