Concept and types of collaboration for community health promotion at Public Health Centers in Seoul, Korea

In an environment with top-down-style public health practices, collaborations with communities may form in its unique ways. In order to identify and categorize the types of collaboration that Public Health Centers in Seoul, Korea are engaged, a content analysis was performed by reviewing the Community Health Plans for 2007-2010 of the 25 districts in Seoul. In total, 614 cases of collaboration were identified which had been planned for 2007-2010. The categories of collaboration activities include: (1) offering direct services through external venues utilizing external facilities; (2) providing health education materials to partner agencies promoting health messages through media; (3) running committees with collaborators inviting external experts; (4) participating in external events; (5) referring clients to external health services; (6) connecting services; and miscellaneous. Most of the collaboration was at a networking level and for short-term or one-time activities. Community-based, coalition-type collaboration was rare to find. Public Health Centers mentioned top-down leadership as a driving factor for collaboration building, leaving community-based leadership less emphasized. The concept and types of collaboration should be clearly defined and shared for community health research and practice in Korea. Sustainable public-private collaboration for health promotion programs at Public Health Centers should be considered as a strategic issue for planning and operating health promotion initiatives and activities.