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Assessing the Capacity of Health Departments to Engage in Community-Based Participatory Public Health
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Assessing the Capacity of Health Departments to Engage in Community-Based Participatory Public Health

Edith Parker, Lewis H Margolis, Eugenia Eng and Carlos Henríquez-Roldán
American journal of public health (1971), Vol.93(3), pp.472-476
03/2003
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.93.3.472
PMCID: PMC1447766
PMID: 12604498
url
https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.93.3.472View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Objectives. We created indicators of local public health agency capacity to engage in community-based participatory public health. Methods. We sent a survey of 27 items reflecting aspects of community-based participatory public health to 429 employees in 4 local health departments. Two thirds (n = 282) responded. We performed a factor analysis to identify components of community-based participatory practice. Results. We identified 4 factors: (1) the agency’s and (2) the individual employee’s skills in working with community groups and minority populations, (3) the extent and frequency of agency networking, and (4) community participation in health department planning. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that it is possible to measure the competencies needed by health department staff to engage in community-based participatory public health.
Research and Practice

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