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Key Family Health Practices and the Social Determinants of Health
BACKGROUND: There are 16 key health practices considered to be vital in the family setting. These were identified by UNICEF to be essential to child health, nutrition, and development. However, disparities in access to opportunities, resources, and services, resulting from the interplay of various social factors, can limit the family’s capacity to act upon its health challenges.
OBJECTIVE: To determine how commonly key family health practices are observed in households located in resource-challenged communities and how adopting these health practices are perceived to be facilitated or hindered by the social determinants of health.
METHODS: Households from five villages in Lugazi, Uganda were randomly selected to answer a survey (n=390) and an in-depth interview (n=122) on health behaviors in the home, application of the 16 key family practices, and the social determinants of health.
RESULTS: Fever/malaria was the most common health challenge in the home. Majority reported practicing key family health practices but identified income, lack of resources, employment, and poor environmental sanitation as major barriers to translating key health behaviors into action. “Seeing their mother do it” was identified as the most likely factor for adults and children to practice health behaviors with mothers recognized as bearing the most responsibility for teaching and modelling health behaviors in the home.
CONCLUSION: The family’s capacity to practice key family health practices is influenced by the social determinants of health. It is essential to enable households to adopt positive health behaviors within the context of their social, economic, political, and environmental surroundings.
Learning Areas:
Assessment of individual and community needs for health educationDiversity and culture
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Social and behavioral sciences
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health
Learning Objectives:
Discuss the 16 key family health practices within the context of the family as a health producer and as the basic social and support unit of society;
Describe the impact of social, economic, cultural, environmental, and political factors and health disparities on the family;
Describe the social determinants of health profile of a group of respondents from households located in resource-challenged communities in Lugazi, Uganda; their level of awareness and perception of the social determinants of health; and their perceived impact of various social factors on the family’s capacity to apply the 16 key family health practices;
Describe health decision making profile of a group of respondents from households in Lugazi, Uganda as to who makes health decisions in the home; from whom families learn key family health behaviors; what health decisions makers identified as gaps/barriers in translating health knowledge into action; and what they identified as motivators of health behavior change at the household level;
Discuss the findings of the study as to which social, economic, political, or environmental factors were perceived by health decision makers to facilitate or hinder the adoption of key family health practices at the household level and how they were addressing the impact of these social factors on their individual and collective health;
Explain the potential implications of the findings on how families in resource-challenged settings were addressing the perceived influence of the social determinants on their capacity to adopt key family health practices.
Keyword(s): Child Health Promotion, Family Involvement
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Dr. Len B. Novilla, M.D., MPH, is the principal investigator of the study. She is an Associate Professor at the Department of Health Science at Brigham Young University. Since 2010, she has been conducting research studies on the social determinants of health in consultation with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). She has presented in various professional conferences, professional training workshops, and at a state-level multidisciplinary panel on the social determinants of health.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.