The power of partnerships: state public health department multisector collaborations in major chronic disease programme areas in the United States

Abstract

Background Multisector collaboration between state public health departments (SHDs) and diverse community partners is increasingly recognized as important for promoting positive public health outcomes, addressing social determinants of health, and reducing health inequalities. This study investigates collaborations between SHDs in the United States and different types of organizations addressing chronic disease in and outside of the health sector. Methods SHD employees were randomly selected from the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors membership list for participation in an online survey. Participants were asked about their primary chronic disease work unit (cancer, obesity, tobacco, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and others), as well as their work unit collaborations (exchange of information/cooperation in activities) with organizations in health and non-health sectors. As a measure of the different organizations SHDs collaborated with in health and non-health sectors, a collaboration heterogeneity score for each programme area was calculated. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey’s post hoc tests were used to assess differences in collaborator heterogeneity between programme areas. Results A total of 574 participants were surveyed. Results indicated that the cancer programme area, along with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, had significantly less collaboration heterogeneity with organizations outside of the health sector compared to the obesity and tobacco programme areas. Conclusions While collaborations with health sector organizations are commonly reported, public health departments can increase collaboration with sectors outside of health to more fully address chronic disease prevention.

Advancing healthcare equity through dissemination and implementation science

“…Given the complex and interdependent social needs of populations experiencing healthcare inequities and the systems that contribute to these needs, 37 we must focus our efforts on systemic perspectives and multisector settings that have the potential to address the underlying causes of these inequities 38,39 . Partnerships and clinical linkages with these settings can help improve some of the key barriers to both healthcare equity and health equity 35,40–43 . For example, healthcare systems can partner with community sectors (e.g., faith‐based and/or social service organizations, tribal communities) to provide greater linkages and access to healthcare services, and to address some of the fundamental needs that must be in place to promote health.…”

“… 38 , 39 Partnerships and clinical linkages with these settings can help improve some of the key barriers to both healthcare equity and health equity. 35 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 For example, healthcare systems can partner with community sectors (e.g., faith‐based and/or social service organizations, tribal communities) to provide greater linkages and access to healthcare services, and to address some of the fundamental needs that must be in place to promote health. Community sectors are important for marginalized groups because they are often more trusted and may have higher reach, especially for populations that do not regularly access healthcare.…”

Equity in Cancer and Chronic Disease Prevention through a Multi-Pronged Network Intervention: Works-in-Progress

“…Scholars have recently begun to focus on strengthening the relationships between health and social services, in line with social capital frameworks [30,31]. Hyperlocal, dense ecosystems could directly contribute to bidirectional, sustainable referrals to resources at CBOs, FQHCs, and other organizations [32,33]. Such referrals could enable a greater number of entry points for community members and could allow for seamless coordination across multiple, often co-occurring, unmet health and SDOH needs.…”