Scalability of Community Participation in Health Program Decisions

The achievement of significant levels of influence on six program decision areas by communities served by health care program is investigated using Guttman scale analysis in a sample of 50 Children and Youth comprehensive health care projects in the United States to determine whether such achievement occurs in an ordered or a random sequence. Evidence presented indicates that the achievement of relative levels of community influence is orderly for initial levels of influence; higher levels of community influence apparently do not follow the same order. Implications of these findings for planning and predicting the development of personal health service programs are discussed.