Community-based health promotion programs are a viable public health approach to eliminate disparities in health outcomes. Some of the defining characteristics of community-based health promotion programs include the use of data-based theoretical frameworks to guide the development of program activities, the tailoring of interventions to meet the needs of individuals and communities, the inclusion of program participants in the development and implementation of interventions, and program evaluation. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to stimulate discussion about the rapidly evolving field of community-based health promotion and prevention, and (2) to highlight important challenges confronting community-based health promotion programs using examples drawn from initiatives funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. A critical lesson learned from community-based prevention programs is the importance of collecting and analyzing process and impact evaluation data to measure health-related outcomes by proxy. While evaluation is an essential component of community-based health promotion programs, we need to acknowledge our limitations in this area. Even the most carefully designed quantitative tools are insufficient to evaluate what are often very complex factors affecting health behavior and health outcomes, including race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Because lower socioeconomic status is associated with higher rates of morbidity and mortality, for example, community-based health promotion programs target low-income populations. However, it is often difficult to reach low-income subgroups at highest risk through traditional survey methods such as mail or telephone surveys. It is our hope that practitioners and researchers alike will respond to the challenges faced by community-based health promotion programs.
Learning Objectives: Learning objectives Skill. Participants in this session will learn how community-based health promotion models differ from other public health models to eliminate health disparities. Outcome #1. At the end of the session participants will identify potential advantages and disadvantages to using community-based health promotion models. Outcome #2. At the end of the session, participants will evaluate how community-based programs can benefit from state-of-the art research findings, yet remain responsive to the needs of individuals and communities. Learning Objective #1. Identify process and outcome indicators that might be appropiate for evaluating community-based health promotion programs. Learning Objective #2. Develop skills in influencing public health models and policies to eliminate health disparities
Keywords: Community Health Programs, Outcomes Research
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.