National Profile of Local Health Departments, 2008 (ICPSR 26962)
Version Date: Feb 14, 2024 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Carolyn J. Leep, National Association of County and City Health Officials
Series:
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR26962.v3
Version V3 (see more versions)
Summary View help for Summary
Conducted by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), the purpose of this survey of local health departments (LHDs) was to advance and support the development of a database for LHDs to describe and understand their structure, function, and capacities. Each LHD in the United States received a questionnaire with a set of core questions. In addition, some of the LHDs received one of three randomly assigned modules of supplemental questions. The core questions covered jurisdictional information, governance, funding, workforce (staffing levels, occupations employed, top executive education and licensure, and percentages of staff by gender, race, and Hispanic origin), LHD activities, health disparities, and community health assessment and planning. The surveyed LHD activities include immunization, screening for diseases and conditions, treatment for communicable diseases, maternal and child health, epidemiology and surveillance activities, and regulation, inspection and/or licensing activities. Topics covered by Module 1 include awareness and use of NACCHO's operational definition of a functional local health department, familiarity with a voluntary national accreditation program (VNAP) for state and local health departments, LHD promotional activities, use of the logo and tagline that NACCHO developed for local governmental public health, and characteristics of LHD Web sites. Module 2 examined human resources, awareness and use of core competencies related to public health, interaction with academic institutions, internal agency strategic planning, sharing of resources with other LHDs, and information technology. Finally, Module 3 asked about community health assessment and health improvement planning, essential services and activities, land use planning, policy-making and advocacy, partnership and collaboration with other organizations, and access to health care services.
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Restrictions View help for Restrictions
As explained in the ICPSR Processing Note in the codebook, some variables are restricted from general dissemination for reasons of confidentiality. Users interested in obtaining the Restricted-Use Version of the Data, which contains both the restricted and not restricted variables, must complete an Agreement for the Use of Confidential Data, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research. Apply for access to these data through the ICPSR restricted data contract portal, which can be accessed via the study home page.
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Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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To obtain the Public-Use Version of the Data, users must submit a data request form (user agreement) which is provided together with the technical documentation for this study. Submission instructions are included on the form.
- More information about this study can be found on the NACCHO Web site, www.naccho.org.
Sample View help for Sample
The survey attempted to interview all LHDs in the United States.
Universe View help for Universe
All LHDs in the United States. LHDs were defined as administrative or service units of local or state government concerned with health and carrying some responsibility for the health of a jurisdiction smaller than the state. Hawaii and Rhode Island were excluded because their state health departments operate on behalf of local public health and have no sub-state units.
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
The study had a response rate of 83 percent, or 2,332 of 2,794 LHDs in the United States.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2010-05-05
Version History View help for Version History
2024-02-14 Online variable search capabilities have been added for this study.
2020-02-24 Online variable search capabilities have been added for this study.
2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:- Leep, Carolyn J. National Profile of Local Health Departments, 2008. ICPSR26962-v3. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-02-14. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR26962.v3
2014-07-02 The Public-Use Data Agreement has been revised.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.
This study is maintained and distributed by the Health and Medical Care Archive (HMCA). HMCA is the official data archive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.