[Comparative study on objective-setting public health policy--historical background and path dependence]

Area of Science:

• Public Health Policy
• Health Management
• Health Promotion

Background:

• The New Public Health movement, inspired by the Ottawa Charter, emphasizes supportive environments and healthy lifestyles.
• Objective-setting public health policies, like the US Healthy People initiative, originated in the 1970s and 1980s.
• These policies apply management by objectives principles to public health, influenced by New Public Management reforms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the historical background and path dependence of objective-setting public health policies.
• To compare different objective-setting public health policies from the USA, United Kingdom, WHO Regional Office for Europe, and Japan.
• To analyze the goals, target domains, targeting methods, and evaluation of these policies.

Main Methods:

• Historical review of objective-setting public health policies.
• Comparative analysis of four selected national and international public health policies.
• Examination of policy goals, target domains, targeting methods, and evaluation strategies.

Main Results:

• Objective-setting policies became prevalent in Western countries and Japan during the 1990s.
• The goals of the analyzed public health policies were largely identical.
• Significant differences were observed in the domains of the targets, attributed to each country's unique public health policy history.

Conclusions:

• Objective-setting public health policies demonstrate path dependence, with historical experiences shaping their development.
• While goals converge, the specific focus areas (domains) of these policies are country-specific.
• Understanding historical context is crucial for explaining variations in public health policy implementation.