Developing State Health Improvement Plans: Exploring States' Use of Healthy People.

Background: While Healthy People outlines a national framework for improving the health of the nation, many states develop State Health Improvement Plans (SHIPs) to set priorities to improve the health of their residents. The purpose of this study was to understand the processes that states use to develop their SHIPs, how states align their SHIPs with Healthy People, and challenges that states face using Healthy People.

Methods: NORC conducted semistructured interviews with 9 state health department representatives who were responsible for SHIPs.