RECENT CHANGES IN LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT SPENDING

This study determined differences in U.S. local health department (LHD ) expenditures between I989 and I993 and examined the factors that wer e associated with those changes. Adjusted to constant I993 dollars, ne arly half (48%) of the studied LHDs experienced budget decreases and 5 2% experienced budget increases. The median change in LHD budgets was 0.2% growth per year. Significant associations were found between the likelihood of a department experiencing a budget increase and several measures describing the LHD's administrative and economic environment.