Community Interagency Connections for Immigrant Worker Health Interventions, King County, Washington State, 2012–2013

Abstract

IntroductionCross-sector community partnerships are a potentially powerful strategy to address population health problems, including health disparities. US immigrants — commonly employed in low-wage jobs that pose high risks to their health — experience such disparities because of hazardous exposures in the workplace. Hazardous exposures contribute to chronic health problems and complicate disease management. Moreover, prevention strategies such as worksite wellness programs are not effective for low-wage immigrant groups. The purpose of this article was to describe an innovative application of social network analysis to characterize interagency connections and knowledge needed to design and deliver a comprehensive community-based chronic disease prevention program for immigrant workers.MethodsUsing iterative sample expansion, we identified 42 agencies representing diverse community sectors (service agencies, faith-based organizations, unions, nonprofits, government agencies) pertinent to the health of Chinese immigrant workers. To capture data on shared information, resources, and services as well as organizational characteristics, we jointly interviewed 2 representatives from each agency. We used social network analysis to describe interagency network structure and the positions of agencies within the networks.ResultsAgency interconnections were established primarily for information sharing. In the overall interagency network, a few service-oriented agencies held central or gatekeeper positions. Strong interconnectedness occurred predominately across service, public, and nonprofit sectors. The Chinese and Pan-Asian service sectors showed the strongest interconnectedness.ConclusionNetwork analysis yields critical understanding of community structural links and assets needed to inform decisions about actual and potential community collaborations. Alternative intervention strategies may be needed to address health disparities among immigrant workers.

Understanding the Development, Evaluation, and Sustainability of Community Health Networks Using Social Network Analysis: A Scoping Review

“…These included size, number of connections, cohesion (level of participation, density, and centralization), function (information sharing or referrals), and integration. 16,17,22,58-90 Eight studies identified organizations central to the network and/or network brokers (organizations serving as a bridge between other organizations) and characterized how those organizations positively contribute to network development. Another 5 studies identified and characterized sub-networks which included smaller groups of organizations within the overall network.…”

Aligning healthcare, public health and social services: A scoping review of the role of purpose, governance, finance and data

“…For example, data being used in a feedback loop can be used to demonstrate impact to outside parties (Mattessich & Rausch, 2014 ). Collaboratives also can create online dashboards to help orient partners (Nemours, 2012 ), share data with policy advocacy partners (Bull et al., 2015 ; de Leeuw, 2017 ; Rodriguez et al., 2015 ; Tsai & Petrescu‐Prahova, 2016 ) or work with researchers on theoretical research, providing a firmer basis for practice across the entire field (Bodurtha et al., 2017 ; Liljas et al., 2019 ; Liljegren, 2013 ; Maxwell et al., 2014 ; Rasanathan et al., 2018 ; Spencer & Freda, 2016 ).…”