Invited commentary: how research on public school closures can inform research on public hospital closures.
The literature on social capital and civic engagement as they relate to health and health services outcomes is nuanced and sometimes conflicting, and has been a topic of much investigation in the pages of Social Science and Medicine. Ko et al. (2014) add to this research by considering two health services outcomes: the closure and privatization of public hospitals. We draw from education research on the role of community/civic engagement in public school closures to identify areas for future research to better understand these nuances. Qualitative research on school closures suggest that there are both well-managed and poorly managed closure decisions, and there are diverse community groups with interests in the decision who can interact with each other in nuanced ways. Furthermore, across stakeholder groups, there is not always agreement as to if closure would help or harm their students' education. We encourage health and health services researchers to glean insights from education research and other disciplines disparate but related and relevant to public health when developing research questions and considering alternative methodologies.
University of California Berkeley, School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology, 101 Haviland Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States. Electronic address: akcohen@berkeley.edu.
Alison K
AK
Cohen
University of California Berkeley, School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology, 101 Haviland Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States.
Jennifer
J
Ahern
D019058:Community Networks; D006271:Health Facility Closure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016304:Hospitals, Private; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006786:Hospitals, Urban / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D010067:Ownership / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D066270:Social Capital
Civic engagement; Education; Health services; Social capital; Social epidemiology