Abstract
Background: Healthy People 2020 has made achieving health equity one of its overarching goals; another goal is increasing the number of accredited local agencies that have Community Health Improvement Plans (CHIPs). Community Health Improvement Plans are meant to serve agencies as guiding documents for multiple years.
Objectives: This study investigates the prevalence with which health disparities are addressed within CHIPs and the specific health disparities targeted by these objectives.
Methods: Researchers analyzed 4,094 objectives from CHIPs of 280 local Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB)-accredited and nonaccredited public health agencies in the United States.
Results: Despite the PHAB's focus on addressing health equity, not all PHAB-accredited agencies addressed health disparities (85.4% of CHIPs analyzed). However, more accredited than nonaccredited agencies (73.9%) contained at least one objective focused on health disparities.
Discussion: Findings indicate that if health equity is truly a goal of national initiatives, agencies' planning documents (e.g., CHIPs) can do a better job addressing commonly ignored populations.