The Contributions of Business and Civil Society Sectors to Rural Capacity to Solve Local Health Issues

The new health movement, which has emerged over the last decade, focuses decision making for program designs, interventions and health policies at the local level. This movement assumes that rural communities have the capacity to deal with local health issues. Local problem-solving capacity is based in local leadership patterns, relationships among different community sectors and the ability to select critical but feasible goals. In this research, 159 community leaders in 16 rural counties were interviewed regarding local health priorities, organizational interactions, and leadership roles in county health issues. Analysis of variance was used to identify differences among community sectors. The business and industry sector was found to interact with other organizations around health issues significantly less than all other sectors. Further, 69 percent of the business and industry sector compared with 32 percent of all other sectors thought that the business sector was a source of local leadership. The civil society sector, when compared with all other sectors, was significantly more likely to give priority to health services such as primary, specialty and auxiliary care goals. These findings suggest that rural communities need to find ways to more actively involve the business and industry sector in local health problem solving. In addition, the civil society sector brings to community problem solving a set of priorities that are often different from other sectors of the community.