title: Loving and Leaving Public Health: Predictors of Intentions to Quit Among State Health Agency Workers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  State health agencies play a critical role in protecting and promoting the health and well-being of the people they serve. To be effective, they must maintain a highly skilled, diverse workforce of sufficient size and with proper training.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The goal of this study was to examine demographics, job and workplace environment characteristics, job satisfaction, and reasons for initially joining the public health workforce as predictors of an employee's intentions to leave an organization within the next year.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study used a cross-sectional design. Respondents were selected on the basis of a stratified sampling approach, with 5 geographic (paired Health and Human Services [HHS] regions) as the primary strata. Balanced repeated replication was used as a resampling method for variance estimation. A logistic regression model was used to examine the correlates of intentions to leave one's organization within the next year. The independent variables included several measures of satisfaction, perceptions about the workplace environment, initial reasons for joining public health, gender, age, education, salary, supervisory status, program area, and paired HHS region.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample for this study consisted of 10,246 permanently employed state health agency central office employees who responded to the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS).
  
  
  METHODS
  Considering leaving one's organization within the next year.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Being a person of color, living in the West (HHS regions 9 and 10), and shorter tenure in one's current position were all associated with higher odds of intentions to leave an organization within the next year. Conversely, greater employee engagement, organizational support, job satisfaction, organization satisfaction, and pay satisfaction were all significant predictors of lower intentions to leave one's organization within the next year.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results from this study suggest several variables related to demographics, job characteristics, workplace environment, and job satisfaction that are predictive of intentions to leave. Future researchers and state health agencies should explore how these findings can be used to help with retention of employees in the state health agency workforce.
authors.affiliation: Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Arlington, Virginia (Drs Liss-Levinson, Bharthapudi, and Sellers); and de Beaumont Foundation, Bethesda, Maryland (Dr Leider).
authors.forename: Rivka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liss-Levinson
authors.forename: Kiran
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bharthapudi
authors.forename: Jonathon P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Leider
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sellers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010563:Personnel Turnover / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D011634:Public Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D013219:State Government; D000078329:Workforce