Examination of the Relationship between Public Health Statute Modernization and Local Public Health System Performance

Wide variation in performance of public health (PH) systems, coupled with national interest in improving PH system quality, makes it a priority to identify factors associated with performance. One factor may be congruence between a state’s PH enabling statutes and the obligations outlined in Public Health in America — the collaboratively developed framework that defines the mission and essential services (ESs) of PH. This research examined the relationship between (1) the degree to which language in a state’s PH enabling statutes reflects PH’s mission and ESs and (2) the performance of local public health systems in delivering ESs, measured by National Public Health Performance Standards scores in 207 local jurisdictions. Binary logistic regression demonstrated that a high degree of congruence between statutory language and public health’s mission increased the odds of above-average system performance for 5 of 10 ESs. High levels of congruence between statutory language and the ESs themselves increased odds of above-average system performance for 6 of 10 ESs. Results yielded modest odds ratios (<2.0). Limitations of the data make it impossible to draw firm conclusions; however, these modest results suggest that statutory language may account for little of the variation in local public health system performance