142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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304041
Association between Workforce Size, Expenditures, and Performance of State Health Agency Activities

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Rivka Liss-Levinson, PhD , Research and Evaluation, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Arlington, VA
Kyle Bogaert, MPH , Research & Evaluation, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Arlington, VA
Katie Sellers, DrPH, CPH , Research and Evaluation, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Arlington, VA
Paul E. Jarris, MD , ASTHO, The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Arlington, VA
State health agencies (SHAs) play an integral role in improving the overall health of Americans.  Among their many roles and responsibilities, SHAs provide a variety of services and activities ranging from screening and treatment of diseases to environmental health activities.  The aim of the current study is to examine the relationship between performance of state health agency activities, workforce size, and public health expenditures.

The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) conducts an online survey of SHAs every two to three years to document their structure, functions and resources.  Among the survey items, state health agencies were asked whether or not they directly performed each of 248 services and activities.  SHAs were also asked how many full-time employees work at their state health agency and their public health expenditures for fiscal years 2010 and 2011.

The percentage of all state health agency activities that a SHA performed directly was calculated, and the 2012 Census population was used to calculate per capita expenditures and number of FTEs per 100,000 population at state health agencies.  Associations between performance of activities, per capita expenditures, and FTEs per 100,000 were computed.

Analyses indicate that there is not a relationship between performance of state health agency activities and services and workforce size, or between performance of state health agency activities and services and per capita expenditures on public health. 

Future research should assess not just the existence of programs and services at state health agencies, but also their intensity, quality, and duration to more accurately measure their effectiveness and to gain a better understanding of the relationship between workforce size, expenditures, and direct performance of services and activities by state health agencies.

Learning Areas:

Provision of health care to the public
Public health administration or related administration
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Describe the range of activities performed by state health agencies and the activities most commonly performed directly by state health agencies in 2012 Compare performance of state health agency activities by size of the state health agency workforce per 100,000 population and per capita expenditures on public health Discuss possible explanations for the relationship between performance of state health agency activities, workforce size, and expenditures

Keyword(s): Public Health Administration, Funding/Financing

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As Director of Survey Research at ASTHO, I have primary responsibility for the ASTHO Profile Survey, the source of the data used in this presentation. I have been involved in all aspects of data collection, cleaning, and analysis. I have conducted research for the past three years on public health systems and services research and have presented findings at numerous national conferences.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.