Measurement of Community Health

Measurement of Community Health examines the underlying assumptions of, and the process of, constructing a social health index at the community level. Yoku Shaw-Taylor reviews the assumptions and thinking that informs the concepts of personal health and community social health to provide a sociologic framework of what social health means at the community level and how social health at the individual level differs from it. The author also explores and examines the process of obtaining this index accurately using data from each of the fifty states and the District of Columbia. Shaw-Taylor’s analysis of the adequacy and power of the index suggests that to determine community social health, monitoring the set of socioeconomic indicators used in his research (poverty rate and crime rate) is advisable. Most importantly, the results of this study suggest a reliable method of targeting federal funds or block grants for economic opportunity to states.