{
  "abstract": "Introduction: Health equity is a core function of public health practice, yet most public health agencies lack tools to assess their internal capacity to advance it. Existing measurement efforts have focused primarily on community-level health disparities rather than the organizational infrastructure, leadership, and practices needed to address them. This study aimed to develop a reliable survey for measuring organizational equity capacity within public health agencies.\n\nMethods: We used a two-phase, mixed-methods approach. First, we identified priority organizational domains through concept mapping with 73 state and local practitioners. Findings informed the development of a 47-item survey administered to a national sample of practitioners ( n = 234). We conducted psychometric analyses and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to refine the instrument and evaluate model fit.\n\nResults: Concept mapping identified eight domains: Funding, Agency Practices, Communication, Data Practices, Organizational Partnerships, Community Representation, Leadership, and Staff Development. Through CFA, we identified a 32-item, eight-factor survey with strong model fit (CFI = 0.908; RMSEA = 0.066). All subscale domains showed good to excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.79–0.91).\n\nConclusion: Organizational health equity capacity is multidimensional rather than a single undifferentiated construct. This pragmatic and reliable 32-item instrument provides a rigorous tool for agencies to assess internal equity infrastructure. Agencies can use this tool to benchmark organizational capacity and track systemic progress toward institutionalizing health equity.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Prevention Research Center, Bursky School of Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis , , ,",
    "Bursky School of Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis , , ,"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Stephanie Mazzucca-Ragan"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Rebekah R. Jacob"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Douglas A. Luke"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Sara Malone"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Cheryl A. Valko"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Ross C. Brownson"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/b873fsk46qv0y.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3389/fpubh.2026.1913380",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13661554/?tool=EBI",
  "id": "b873fsk46qv0y",
  "issns": [
    "2296-2565"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13661554",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "3600|Public Health Policies and Education"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214980478",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13661554/pdf/?tool=EBI",
  "pmcid": "PMC13661554",
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-30",
  "publisher": "Frontiers Media SA",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/b873fsk46qv0y.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:20Z",
      "native_id": "PMC:PMC13661554",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13661554"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:20:22Z",
      "native_id": "10.3389/fpubh.2026.1913380",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1913380/full"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "issn:2296-2565",
      "subfield": "epidemiology-public-health"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Operationalizing health equity: a mixed-methods approach to measuring organizational capacity in public health practice",
  "title_text": "Operationalizing health equity: a mixed-methods approach to measuring organizational capacity in public health practice",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:20:22Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/b873fsk46qv0y",
  "venue": "Frontiers in public health",
  "versions": []
}