Effectiveness of Hospital-Community Partnerships in Preventive Health Care Interventions: An Exploration of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Impact.

Abstract

Introduction: Hospital-community partnerships have been increasingly emphasized to improve population health in recent decades. This study investigates the effectiveness of hospital-community partnerships in preventive health care interventions, addressing potential racial and ethnic disparities in impact.

Methods: We measured overall hospital-community partnerships with nine community organizations at the county level using the American Hospital Association annual survey. Preventive health care interventions were also measured by preventable hospitalization rates, mammography screening rates, and flu vaccination rates across racial and ethnic groups using County Health Ranking National data. We estimated pooled ordinary least squared models with year-fixed effect and robust cluster standard errors at the state level. We also used generalized least squares models to examine the impact across racial and ethnic groups, including controls for county characteristics.

Results: Among 3785 counties across 50 states in the United States in the pooled data, the findings indicated that hospital-community partnerships were effective in increasing mammography screening and flu vaccination rates in general. However, upon closer examination of the impact across racial and ethnic groups, hospital-community partnerships were not significantly associated with any of the interventions in the Black and Hispanic population, while they were effective in the White population.

Discussion: Hospital-community partnerships can be effective in increasing uptake rates for mammography screening and flu vaccination rates, but their impact is unevenly distributed among racial and ethnic minorities.

Health equity implications: The findings emphasize the need to design targeted hospital-community partnerships for racial and ethnic minorities to mitigate health disparities in preventive health care interventions.