title: Modeling the sustainability of community health networks: novel approaches for analyzing collaborative organization partnerships across time.
abstract: Sustainability is important if community health organizations are to be effective in collaborating to achieve long term health goals. We present a multi-method set of longitudinal analyses examining structural markers applied to a group of organizations brought together to reduce cancer disparities among older African American adults. At the overall network level, sustainability was seen in the growth of outgoing connections and multiplexity. Results of hierarchical clustering analyses identified distinct patterns of collaborative activation over time at the relationship level. Growth modeling indicated the effects of continuing network membership and participation in collaborative events on several structural markers of sustainability. Results of these analyses provide longitudinal indicators for how collaborations among partner organizations impacted their likelihood of continuing in the community network program. The strategy presented here introduces novel methods to assist with planning and evaluation of future community based public health endeavors.
authors.affiliation: Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University, Detroit, MI USA.
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Manning
authors.affiliation: Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University, Detroit, MI USA.
authors.forename: Aliccia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bollig-Fischer
authors.affiliation: Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University, Detroit, MI USA.
authors.forename: Lisa Berry
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Bobovski
authors.affiliation: Wayne State University, Detroit, MI USA.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lichtenberg
authors.affiliation: Josephine Ford Cancer Center, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.affiliation: Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University, Detroit, MI USA ; Wayne State University, Detroit, MI USA.
authors.forename: Terrance L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Albrecht
keywords: Community; Growth modeling; Hierarchical cluster analysis; Networks; Partnerships; Sustainability