title: Community capacity as means to improved health practices and an end in itself: evidence from a multi-stage study.
abstract: This three-phase study characterized, validated, and applied community capacity domains in a health communication project evaluation in Zambia. Phase I explored community capacity domains from community members' perspectives (16 focus groups, 14 in-depth interviews, 4 sites. These were validated in Phase II with 720 randomly selected adults. The validated domains were incorporated into a program evaluation survey (2,462 adult women, 2,354 adult men; October 2009). The results indicated that the intervention had direct effects on community capacity; enhanced capacity was then associated with having taken community action for health. Finally, community capacity mediated by community action and controlling for confounders, had a significant effect on women's contraceptive use, children's bed net use, and HIV testing. The results indicate that building community capacity served as a means to an end-improved health behaviors and reported collective action for health-and an end-in-itself, both of which are essential to overall wellbeing.
authors: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. cunderwo@jhsph.edu
authors: Carol
authors: C
authors: Underwood
authors: Marc
authors: M
authors: Boulay
authors: Gail
authors: G
authors: Snetro-Plewman
authors: Mubiana
authors: M
authors: Macwan'gi
authors: Janani
authors: J
authors: Vijayaraghavan
authors: Mebelo
authors: M
authors: Namfukwe
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Marsh
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003256:Community Participation; D003267:Contraception / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control; D015438:Health Behavior; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D057147:Mosquito Nets / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012931:Social Environment; D055815:Young Adult; D015024:Zambia