Some lessons in tackling social determinants of health in resource-poor settings: health promotion with young people in Vanuatu.
Community based health promotion initiatives are recognised as important strategies to address the growing burden of non-communicable diseases in developing countries. However, limited knowledge exists on how such initiatives work in practice. One innovative health promotion program of work, the Pacific Action for Health Project, is working with young people and communities in the Pacific country of Vanuatu to offset the future effects of risk factors for these diseases, through optimising broad lifestyle and living conditions for the positive promotion of health. Recognising the established link between non-communicable diseases and their social determinants, the Pacific Action for Health Project works with young people to address these determinants at the community level including, but not limited to, unemployment. This paper appraises the program based on a constructivist approach to data gathering and analysis, with observations made in the field subsequently interpreted through the health promotion literature on community empowerment. From the data collected, six themes emerged as key attributes through which the program achieved its planned outcomes. Subsequent analysis through the community empowerment literature, specifically 'dynamic continuum' models of community development, provided deeper analysis of the program's strategies and offered insight into how the literature on community empowerment may work in practice in a resource poor context. In addition to the development of locally specific empowerment measures as indicators for future program evaluation, further ethnographic work and participatory-action research approaches are encouraged to assist the future development of the program.
Harris
Patrick
P
Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation (CHETRE), UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care & Equity, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. patrick.harris@unsw.edu.au
Ritchie
Jan
J
Tabi
Graham
G
Abel
Myriam
M
Lower
Tony
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006266:Health Education; D006293:Health Promotion; D006295:Health Resources; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011209:Power, Psychological; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014478:Unemployment; D009514:Vanuatu; D035862:Vulnerable Populations; D055815:Young Adult