Building communities that create health.
Typically, public health policy, program design, and resource allocation are based on issue-specific, targeted interventions directed at specific populations or sub-populations. The authors argue that this approach fails to meet the goal of public health-to improve health for all--and that the key to health improvement is to create a social context in which healthy choices are the norm. The authors present as case studies two Pennsylvania cities that used multisectoral approaches to achieve community health improvements.
Wilcox
R
R
Community Health with the Pennsylvania Institute for Healthy Communities, Philadelphia 19107, USA. wilcox@dvhc.org
Knapp
A
A
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D018672:Community Health Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004651:Employment; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D010414:Pennsylvania / Q000453:epidemiology; D012931:Social Environment; D012944:Social Support