• Simone R Singh, Cory E Cronin, Cherie Conley, Margaret Lenhart, and Berkeley Franz.
• Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Electronic address: singhsim@umich.edu.
• Am J Prev Med. 2023 Jan 1; 64 (1): 263226-32.

IntroductionThis study explores the relationship between nonprofit hospitals' use of equity as a guiding theme in the development of their community health needs assessments and the level of alignment between the health needs identified in the community health needs assessment and those addressed in hospitals' implementation strategy.MethodsUsing data from a nationally representative data set of 485 nonprofit hospital community health needs assessments for the years 2018-2021, this study employed a multivariate logistic regression model to examine the association between hospitals' use of equity as a guiding theme in the community health needs assessment and binary indicators of alignment for 6 common community health needs: access to care, chronic illness, obesity, mental health, substance use, and social determinants of health.ResultsHospitals using equity as a guiding theme in their community health needs assessment reported significantly greater alignment for 3 needs: access to care (OR=3.40), substance use (OR=2.75), and social determinants of health (OR=3.60).ConclusionsUsing equity as a guiding theme in the needs assessment process can help to align hospitals' community health initiatives with the most pressing health needs, thus contributing to public health improvement.Copyright © 2022 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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