A longitudinal study of the relationship between parternship and collaboration with specific health outcomes, at the county level

This research seeks to determine the relationship between local health department partnership and level of collaboration with other public health system entities (community health centers, physician practices, other health providers, emergency responders, schools, faith communities, and colleges and universities) and specific health outcomes (percent of births characterized as low birth weight, prevent of mothers receiving no care in the first trimester, pertussis rates, syphillis rates, CVD rates and colon cancer rates. This is a longitudinal study using data from the 2005 and 2008 NACCHO profile of Local Health Departments. This study will serve as a measure of partnerships and will be matched with roughly contemporaneous county level data from the 2008 edition of the Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) that will serve as measures of the health outcomes mentioned above. In addition, specific demographic characteristics thought to influence health contained in the CHSI will serve as control variables in the analysis. Appropriate statistical techniques, including ANOVA and regression, will be used to analyze this data. This research is currently being conducted, we have no results to divulge yet. However, it will be done prior to the APHA annual meeting. These findings will provide insight into the associations between system partnerships and health.