Health departments' implementation of public health's core functions: an assessment of health impacts.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this article was to investigate the relationship between state health agencies' adherence to the recommendations of the United State's Institute of Medicine's (IOM) report, "The Future of Public Health", and changes in their populations' health.


METHODS
Data were abstracted from agencies' plans, budgets, annual reports, etc. spanning a 5-year period. A comprehensive change in population health measure over the same period was drawn from the UnitedHealth Group's annual survey.


METHODS
Configurations, based on public health core functions, were established using linear regression and qualitative comparative analysis. The dependent variable was a holistic measure of change in a state population's health status.


RESULTS
State agencies that most completely adopted a public health model emphasizing assessment, assurance and policy development also experienced significant improvements in their population health measures.


CONCLUSIONS
State agencies that more completely adopted the IOM's public health core functions had a concomitant improvement in their populations' health statuses. Further research to explore if there is a causal link between adoption of the core functions and positive health impacts is warranted.
Ford
E W
EW
Tulane University, 1430 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70112-26992, USA. eford@tulane.edu
Duncan
W J
WJ
Ginter
P M
PM
D006077:Government Agencies; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D016014:Linear Models; D015969:National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, U.S., Health and Medicine Division; D011050:Policy Making; D011635:Public Health Administration; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D013219:State Government; D014481:United States