HEALTH PROMOTION PRIORITIES OF ECONOMICALLY STRESSED CITIES

The authors surveyed the local health officers (LHOs) of 436 northeast ern and midwestern cities about their priorities for promoting health through prevention. LHOs of the most economically stressed cities iden tified the following as the five most important public health preventi on goals that are amenable to intervention: reducing the incidence of HIV infection and AIDS, improving maternal and infant health, controll ing sexually transmitted diseases, reducing violent and abusive behavi or and immunizing against infectious diseases. Their judgments were al most identical to those of LHOs of the least economically stressed cit ies and of a sample of African American political and public health le aders. LHOs of the most stressed cities were more pessimistic than the ir counterparts about achieving the objectives. The results of this su rvey can be used by federal, state, and local governments as well as p rivate organizations as a guide for allocating scarce resources.