Awareness of and Confidence to Address Equity-Related Concepts Across the US Governmental Public Health Workforce.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To assess the governmental public health (GPH) workforce's awareness of and confidence to address health equity , social determinants of health ( SDoH ), and social determinants of equity ( SDoE ) in their work. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A nationally representative population of US local and state GPH employees (n = 41 890) were surveyed through the 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS 2021). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reported awareness and confidence were explored by self-identified racial and ethnic group identity, public health degree attainment, and supervisory status. RESULTS: GPH employees reported higher levels of awareness across concepts ( health equity -71%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 70.5-71.6; SDoH -62%, 95% CI 62.3-63.5; SDoE -48%, 95% CI 47.2-48.4) than confidence ( health equity -48%, 95% CI 47.8-49.0; SDoH -46%, 95% CI 45.4-46.7; SDoE -34%, 95% CI 33.4-34.6). Self-identified Black or African American employees reported higher confidence across all concepts ( health equity -56%, 95% CI 54.3-57.6; SDoH -52%, 95% CI 50.8-54.1; SDoE -43%, 95% CI 41.3-44.6) compared to other self-identified racial groups. Employees with a PH degree reported higher confidence across all concepts ( health equity -65%, 95% CI 63.8-68.8; SDoH -73%, 95% CI 71.3-74.1; SDoE -39%, 95% CI 36.9-40.1) compared with employees without a PH degree ( health equity -45%, 95% CI 44.8-46.1; SDoH -41%, 95% CI 40.6-41.9; SDoE -33%, 95% CI 32.6-33.8). We found an inverse relationship between supervisory status and confidence to address SDoE Nonsupervisors reported higher confidence (35%, 95% CI 29.2-31.9) than supervisors (31%, 95% CI 29.2-31.9), managers (31%, 95% CI 28.8-32.6), and executives (32%, 95% CI 27.5-34.4). CONCLUSION: PH WINS 2021 reveals that GPH employees are aware of equity-related concepts but lack confidence to address them. Public health agencies should build employees' confidence by prioritizing and operationalizing equity internally and externally in collaboration with communities and partners.