This document contains a compilation of articles that have been assembled because of their potential for enhancing understanding of rural health care issues and for their unwavering high standards. The articles promote high quality research in an area which is rapidly becoming a legitimate and recognized field of inquiry among scholars. Besides addressing specific issues, the articles illustrate that rural America's diversity and dynamism affect issues related to rural health care. The articles are organized into two broad categories: assessing need and demand for rural health care and provision, and evaluation of rural health services. In the first part, John Kushman, Patricia Cowper, and Ellen Radovic examine stresses and additional demands created by influx of new residents into rural areas. Charles Crawford, Heather Hong, and Janet Armstrong study the effect of social relationships on health status of older persons. Vernon Greene analyzes the demand for skilled nursing home care for the elderly in "Premature Institutionalization among the Rural Elderly." Gary Levitz and James Curry consider the determinants of physician utilization within four categories of rurality. In the second section, Lee Crandall and Starr Silver evaluate a preventive care project operated in three rural counties. Harry Perlstadt examines emergency medical care in "Market Structure and Outcome for Volunteer Ambulance Services". The final article, by David Holmes, Robert Jones, Brian McPherson, John Clarke, and Alton Roberts, describes a health education program designed to deter cigarette smoking among rural youth. (BRR)