Observational study on factors related to health-promoting community activity development in primary care (frAC Project): a study protocol

Attitude towards health promotion in university students. Construction and validation of a scale

OBJECTIVE

To construct and validate a questionnaire about the attitude of university students toward health promotion.

METHOD

A cross-sectional study. A questionnaire of 14 questions was designed and administered to 1486 first-year undergraduates. The principal axes factoring method with oblique rotation was applied and a confirmatory factor analysis was carried out. Reliability was calculated through internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha and item-total correlation for the global scale and its subscales.

RESULTS

A 14-item scale was constructed, with two dimensions. Its Cronbach's alpha was 0.872, and 0.852, and 0.718 for its subscales. The adjustment values of the confirmatory factor analysis were adequate.

CONCLUSIONS

The attitude towards health promotion scale has shown to have adequate psychometric properties. It is an instrument that will help to detect referents and health assets for future interventions.

Community Activities in Primary Care: A Literature Review

Community health promotion activities are a useful tool for a proactive approach to healthy lifestyles. However, the implementation of these types of activities at health centers is not standardized. The aim of this review was to analyse the characteristics of community activities undertaken in the primary care setting and substantiate available evidence on their health impact. We conducted a bibliographic review until November 15th, 2023 in the TRIPDATABASE, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and DIALNET databases. We included original papers on interventions, community activities, and actions and/or social prescriptions which had been implemented in a Primary Care setting, included a group approach in at least one session, and described some type of evaluation of the intervention applied. Studies targeted at professionals and those without involvement of the primary care team were excluded. The search identified 1912 potential studies. We included a total of 30 studies, comprising 11 randomized clinical trials, 14 quasi-experimental studies, 1 cohort study, and 4 qualitative studies. The issues most frequently addressed in community activities were healthy habits, physical activity, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Community activities can improve the physical and psychological environment of their participants, as well as their level of knowledge about the issues addressed. That said, however, implementation of these types of interventions is not uniform. The existence of a professional community-activity liaison officer at health centers, who would help integrate the health system with the community sector, could serve to standardize implementation and maximize the health impact of these types of interventions.

Factors related to the development of health-promoting community activities in Spanish primary healthcare: two casecontrol studies

OBJECTIVE

Spanish primary healthcare teams have the responsibility of performing health-promoting community activities (CAs), although such activities are not widespread. Our aim was to identify the factors related to participation in those activities.

DESIGN

Two case-control studies.

SETTING

Performed in primary care of five Spanish regions.

SUBJECTS

In the first study, cases were teams that performed health-promoting CAs and controls were those that did not. In the second study (on case teams from the first study), cases were professionals who developed these activities and controls were those who did not.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Team, professional and community characteristics collected through questionnaires (team managers/professionals) and from secondary sources.

RESULTS

The first study examined 203 teams (103 cases, 100 controls). Adjusted factors associated with performing CAs were percentage of nurses (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.14), community socioeconomic status (higher vs lower OR 2.16, 95% CI 1.18 to 3.95) and performing undergraduate training (OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.93). In the second study, 597 professionals responded (254 cases, 343 controls). Adjusted factors were professional classification (physicians do fewer activities than nurses and social workers do more), training in CAs (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.1), team support (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.5 to 5.7), seniority (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.09), nursing tutor (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.1 to 3.5), motivation (OR 3.7, 95% CI 1.8 to 7.5), collaboration with non-governmental organisations (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.1) and participation in neighbourhood activities (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.9 to 5.1).

CONCLUSIONS

Professional personal characteristics, such as social sensitivity, profession, to feel team support or motivation, have influence in performing health-promoting CAs. In contrast to the opinion expressed by many professionals, workload is not related to performance of health-promoting CAs.