The health of their nation: how would citizens develop England's health strategy?
BACKGROUND
England's first health strategy, The Health of the Nation, was formulated without systematic input from the citizens whose health it targeted. Several studies indicate that citizens, when asked to prioritize services, rank interventions for acute and life-threatening conditions highest. But how they view and what they want in the areas of prevention, public health, or care for the chronically and mentally ill is not known.


OBJECTIVE
To explore citizens' attitudes towards England's health strategy as set out in The Health of the Nation and to elicit their ideas for developing it further.


METHODS
The study was conducted in four general practices and a secondary school in southwest England. The design was a qualitative analysis of testimony from 24 audiotaped focus groups. Twenty-three groups were drawn from lists of National Health Service registered patients, stratified by The Health of the Nation target category, and one group was drawn from 13 to 15 year-old girls at a mixed secondary school. In all, 173 citizens took part in the 24 focus group meetings.


RESULTS
In group discussions, these citizens demonstrated an understanding of The Health of the Nation strategy, which enabled them to form views and develop relevant arguments. They produced 26 specific ideas for developing the strategy across its five key areas. There was congruence with the action plans of a national expert group convened by the Department of Health and charged with reviewing the strategy's progress. The focus groups went beyond the experts' proposals, with further practical ideas to achieve The Health of the Nation targets.


CONCLUSIONS
Citizens in this study contributed a broad range of relevant, appropriate, and innovative ideas on how to develop health strategy. The use of focus groups to achieve this is practical and efficient.
Bradley
N
N
Institute of General Practice, Postgraduate Medical School, Exeter.
Sweeney
K
K
Waterfield
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011639:Public Opinion; D011787:Quality of Health Care