Philanthropy and Beyond: Creating Shared Value to Promote Well-Being for Individuals in Their Communities

Development and validation of the Health-Friendly Activity Index: an assessment tool to comprehensively measure health-friendly activities of corporations or organisations

OBJECTIVES

We developed the Health-Friendly Activity Index (HFAI) to comprehensively measure the health-friendly activities of corporations or organisations. We validated the developed tool and reported on its use as an assessment tool to improve consumers' health-related outcomes.

DESIGN

This was a cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Development of the HFAI questionnaire followed a three-phase process: item generation, item construction and validation with field testing. Using relevance and feasibility criteria, we developed a 105-item questionnaire with six domains (Governance and Infrastructure, Needs Assessment, Planning, Implementation, Monitoring and Feedback, and Outcomes).

PARTICIPANTS

To assess the sensitivity and validity of the questionnaire, the HFAI and Contribution Assessment Tool for Consumer's Health (CATCH) were administered to 302 participants (151 employers and 151 employees) from 151 Korean companies.

PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES

The CATCH measured the contribution of each company to the physical, mental, social and spiritual health of its consumers. To estimate the reliability and validity of all six HFAI domains and their respective scales, Cronbach's α coefficients and correlation coefficients were used.

RESULTS

Each domain and scale of the HFAI exhibited a Cronbach's α coefficient between 0.80 and 0.98 for the employers and employees. The overall HFAI and its six domains correlated significantly and positively with all health outcomes such as physical, mental, social and spiritual status scores evaluated using the CATCH (Spearman's correlation range: 0.37-0.68).

CONCLUSION

The HFAI, a unique assessment tool with acceptable psychometric properties, can help corporate managers assess their health-friendly activities.

What Kind of Community Development System Can Effectively Support Citywide Philanthropic Efforts to Promote Community Well-Being?

How can the efforts of philanthropic agencies be better supported to promote citywide community well-being? To address this question, this article uses a citywide, engagement-driven initiative led by local practitioners that took place in Detroit between 2016 and 2019. This article is based on the initiative’s two main outcomes, namely the identification of seven elements of an effective community development system and a vitality framework designed to measure community progress and success. The author of this article conducted participant observation, interviews, and a literature review, as well as site visits to, and case studies on, four best-practice cities, and then used the outcomes to validate the results of the initiative. Informed by the outcomes of the initiative and the research, the article suggests how best to utilize the seven community development system elements and the vitality success framework effectively to support philanthropy that promotes community well-being. This article focuses on theory-building in Detroit and calls for empirical research to further validate the findings. The article provides useful insights into the benefits of community-based research and citywide engagement as essential components of an effective community development system that can coordinate philanthropic practice more effectively to promote community well-being.

Consumers' consciousness of health-friendly products and services and its association with sociodemographic characteristics and health status: a cross-sectional survey of the South Korean population

OBJECTIVES

To identify consumers' consciousness of health-friendly products and services (consumer reaction, purchase intention and willingness to pay more) and its association with sociodemographic characteristics and multidimensional health status.

METHODS

From March to May 2018, we administered questionnaires to 1200 individuals from the general Korean population asking about their perception of health-friendly labels, and if they would purchase such labelled products (foods, pharmaceuticals, etc) and services (purifying water, preventing air pollution, etc) at extra cost.

RESULTS

The participants placed a high value on the importance of mental, social, spiritual and physical health factors in terms of the company's products and services with a score of about 8 out of 10 (range, 7.74-8.33). Most respondents (72.4%) said that they were interested in adopting health-friendly labels. When a health-friendly label is introduced (such as one by the Business for Social Responsiveness), 65.1% of the respondents said that they intended to purchase the product or service, while 6.8% said that they did not and 75.0% said that they were willing to pay extra for the health-friendly product or service. Multivariate logistic regression models showed urban residence, high education level and good social health to be significantly associated with positive attitudes towards health-friendly labels. People with high income, no religion or normal weight were more likely to say that they intend to purchase products and services with health-friendly labels. They also had a more positive attitude towards paying more for such products and services, as did people with good spiritual health.

CONCLUSION

This study provides data that illustrate the importance of health-friendly products and services to the general population and companies.

The Evidence on School-Based Health Centers: A Review

Context. Pediatricians working toward health equity require health care delivery mechanisms that take on dual roles: mitigating the health effects of a maladaptive social ecosystem while simultaneously working to improve the ecosystem itself. School-based health centers (SBHCs) perform these dual roles by providing medical, mental/behavioral, dental, and vision care directly in schools where young people spend the majority of their time, maximizing their opportunity to learn and grow. Evidence Acquisition. Databases were searched extensively for research studies published between January 2000 and December 2018. Evidence Synthesis. The authors began with 3 recent high-impact reviews that covered SBHC history, health outcomes, cost-benefit, and impact on health equity. Informed by these articles, the authors organized the evidence into 4 broad categories of impact: Financial, Physical Health (including medical, vision, and dental), Mental Health, and Educational Outcomes. Using these 4 categories, the authors then performed a robust literature search using PubMed for studies that fit into these themes. Conclusions. SBHCs increase access to health services for children, families, and communities, which ultimately leads to positive short- and long-term outcomes in service of a broad range of stakeholders. Educational impact requires further attention on both outcomes and methodological approaches. Three current public health topics of importance were identified that SBHCs might be well-suited to address: Youth Gun Violence, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and the Health of American Indian/Alaskan Native communities in the United States.