Relationship between local public health system performance of the 10 essential services and community health outcomes

This research seeks to determine the relationship between local public health system performance associated with the 10 EPHS and certain county level community health outcomes (% mothers reveiving no care in first trimester, % births characterized as low birth weight, CVD rate, colon cancer rate, and normalized pertussis and syphilis ratios). Data from county and multi county users from version 1.0 of the National Public Health Performance Standards Program local system assessment instrument serve as a measure of performance of the 10 EPHS, and were matched with corresponding data on the aforementioned health outcomes from the 2008 version of the Community Health Status Indicators. Previous analysis by the authors using linear regression models derived from forward selection (selection variables were determined using an initial bivariate screening process)suggests that significant relationships exist between certain health outcomes and performance scores of the EPHS that have been aggregated into core function scores, as well as EPHS 10. This analysis seeks to build upon that work by applying it to individual EPHS. While the final regression models in this research have not yet been developed, initial bivariate analysis using Pearsons Correlation Coefficient suggest that significant relationships exist between performance of the individual EPHS and a large number of health outcomes. This research, when completed, will shed more light on the relationships between provision of the EPHS and health outocmes, and provide public health practitioners with information regarding which services they may wish to emphasize to improve community health related to the conditions above.