​Do services such as cancer screening and mammography provided by county local health departments translate into better health outcomes for older adults? Not necessarily, according to this study, conducted by Center Faculty Associate Hector Rodriguez and Center Statistician Yueyan Wang, among others. Using data from multiple cycles of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) as well as data from other surveys, the authors examine the extent to which local health department provision of preventive services was associated with better health among seniors.

The authors specifically looked at five interventions -- cancer screening, injury prevention, comprehensive primary care, home health care, and chronic disease prevention -- and found that provision of these services did not necessarily translate into higher rates of colorectal cancer screening, mammography, healthy eating, physical activity and fewer falls among seniors. Poverty, on the other hand, strongly correlated with health outcomes, with highly impoverished counties consistently in the bottom quartile of performance across all indicators. "This further adds to ongoing debate over whether the role of LHDs should be focusing their time and resources on providing clinical services or focusing on the core public health competencies," the authors write.