title: The association of changes in local health department resources with changes in state-level health outcomes.
abstract: We explored the association between changes in local health department (LHD) resource levels with changes in health outcomes via a retrospective cohort study. We measured changes in expenditures and staffing reported by LHDs on the 1997 and 2005 National Association of County and City Health Officials surveys and assessed changes in state-level health outcomes with the America's Health Rankings reports for those years. We used pairwise correlation and multivariate regression to analyze the association of changes in LHD resources with changes in health outcomes. Increases in LHD expenditures were significantly associated with decreases in infectious disease morbidity at the state level (P = .037), and increases in staffing were significantly associated with decreases in cardiovascular disease mortality (P = .014), controlling for other factors.
authors.affiliation: Center for Public Health, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA. perwin@utk.edu
authors.forename: Paul Campbell
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Erwin
authors.forename: Sandra B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Greene
authors.forename: Glen P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Mays
authors.forename: Thomas C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Ricketts
authors.forename: Mary V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Davis
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000401:mortality; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000639:trends; D006295:Health Resources / Q000600:supply & distribution* / Q000639:trends; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D019451:Information Management; D016014:Linear Models; D009111:Local Government; D011635:Public Health Administration / Q000191:economics; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D000078329:Workforce