Despite myriad well-funded local and national initiatives to achieve health equity in the U.S., significant disparities in health between racial groups persist. Local health departments (LHDs) are one of the most salient organizations in efforts to eliminate racial health disparities. Organizational research has shown that characteristics of an organizations workforce can affect its performance. However, little research has been conducted on the relationship between LHD workforce characteristics and LHD engagement in health disparity elimination (HDE) activities. This study uses regression analyses to assess the extent to which one organizational characteristicracial diversity of the LHD workforceis predictive of HDE activity among county-level LHDs nationwide. Results suggest that workforce racial diversity is a strong predictor of HDE activity among county-level LHDs. Findings presented here indicate a need for further research on organizational factors associated with HDE activity and promotion of racial health equity. Implications for such research as well as practical implications are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-05272013-143444 |
| Date | 28 May 2013 |
| Creators | Langeler, Christopher Jod |
| Contributors | William Turner, Paul Speer |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-05272013-143444/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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