A 1-year follow-up evaluation of a sexual-health education program for Spanish adolescents compared with a well-established program

Background: Competencies for adolescents with a healthy sexuality (COMPAS) is the only school-based sexual health promotion program in Spain that has been found to be as effective as an evidence-based intervention (¡Cuídate!) in the short term. This study’s aim was to compare data from a 12-month follow-up evaluation on the effects of COMPAS on adolescents’ sexual risks (knowledge, attitudes, perceived norms, sexual risk perception and intentions) and sexual behaviours (age of the first sex, consistent condom use and multiple partners) with an evidence-based intervention (¡Cuídate!) and a control group.

Methods: Eighteen schools from five provinces of Spain were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: COMPAS, ¡Cuídate! and a control group. The adolescents (N = 1563; 34% attrition) were evaluated 1 week before and after the program, and 1 year post-program implementation.

Results: We found that the COMPAS program was as effective as ¡Cuídate!, the evidence-based ...

National rollout of Healthy Life Centres in Norway

Municipally-managed Healthy Life Centres staffed by multidisciplinary public health teams were established across Norway to advance local health promotion; government commitment to addressing chronic disease through strengthening health promotion provided a platform for change and fostered widespread scale-up of activities; the Healthy Life Centre concept was invented locally and continues to depend on locally-driven efforts, with municipalities given significant autonomy over activities; a structured approach to the rollout of Healthy Life Centres from the outset (including research, piloting and creation of national guidelines) ensured accountability and systematic evaluation; collaborative partnerships between primary care providers, Centre staff and patients proved integral to successfully running activities.

Introducing community-based lifestyle clinics to improve population health in Malta

Lifestyle Clinics offering healthy-living support were introduced across Malta to expand availability of health promotion and disease prevention services; a motivated, multidisciplinary group of primary care professionals led the initiative through collaborative teamwork; the initiative capitalized on recent government policies supporting chronic disease prevention and a newly-established postgraduate community nursing programme; an initial information campaign helped raise awareness and gain public acceptance for new services; patients responded well to being offered a more active role in their health; further, patients play a key advocacy role in expanding the initiative.

Strengthening disease prevention services in Albania

The government, which was strongly committed to establishing universal health coverage, launched a four-year Free Check-Up Programme to introduce free screening services for chronic conditions; adopting a proactive approach to prevention was essential for reaching and engaging the target population (all citizens aged between 40 to 65 years); significant efforts were made to improve the systematic collection and monitoring of population health data; government support for activities, and a key partnership with the Health Insurance Institution to reimburse health check-up services, helped embed the initiative into the health system.

Feasibility of an implementation strategy for the integration of health promotion in routine primary care: a quantitative process evaluation

Process evaluation is recommended to improve the understanding of underlying mechanisms related to clinicians, patients, contect and intervention delivery that may impact on trial or program results, feasibility and transferability to practice. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of the Prescribe Healthy Life (PVS from the Spanish "Prescribe Vida Saludable") implementation strategy for enhancing the adoption and implementation of an evidence-based health promotion intervention in primary health care. 

From HIV prevention to non-communicable disease health promotion efforts in sub-Saharan Africa: A Narrative Review

Although HIV/NCD integration can improve effectiveness of preventive services at individual and community levels, potential public health impact of such approaches remain unknown as reach, adoptability, and sustainability of both integrated and nonintegrated NCD BCC approaches published to date have not been well characterized. So the aim of this study was to synthesize published literature on noncommunicable disease (NCD) behavior change communication (BCC) interventions in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) among persons living with HIV (PLHIV) and in the general population to inform efforts to adopt similar HIV and NCD BCC intervention activities.

How to transfer good practices in integrated care internationally: From self-assessment to knowledge transfer and improvement in care

The challenge of an ageing population is faced by many regions and countries in Europe, and integrated care is a recognised solution to it. Increasing the readiness and capacity of regions to be able to implement integrated care is crucial. In Scotland and in the Puglia region of Italy, a knowledge transfer exercise has been undertaken using the Scirocco model to do just that. 

Community-Based Social Innovations

This research defined CBSIs as community initiatives that seek to: a) empower older people to improve their self-efficacy in caring for themselves and their peers; b) maintain their well-being and; c) promote social cohesion and inclusiveness. Health systems across both developed and developing regions struggle to meet the diverse and complex needs of increasing number of older persons. This study hypothesized that community based social innovations (CBSIs) can improve the health and well-being of older people through community-based care. 

Health literacy as a social practice: Social and empirical dimensions of knowledge on health and healthcare

Health literacy has become a hot topic in health research and public health promotion. Most definitions specify health literacy as an individual cognitive skill, and surveys such as the EU-HLS which ask people to self-rate their decision-making capacity in the health system, grade a majority of the population as having an inadequate health literacy. Inspired by a praxeological understanding of knowledge and based on an empirical study on welfare bricolage in superdiverse urban neighborhoods, this paper explores health literacy ethnographically and highlights people's knowledge, creative practices and experiences concerning health and healthcare.

10th Global Conference on Health Promotion for Well-being, Equity, and Sustainable Development

The Tenth Global Conference on Health Promotion for Well-being, Equity and Sustainable Development, to be held on 13–15 December 2021, is organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) with the support of Finland and the United Arab Emirates, United Nations agencies and partners.

The event is taking place at a critical moment in our progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and building forward better in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health promotion enables people to increase control over and improve their health. Against this backdrop, health promotion creates conditions and healthy environments for people where they live, work, age and play. The Conference will address how health promotion can advance well-being. It will be the first time that WHO addresses well-being as the theme of a major conference.

Participants at the Conference will discuss the contributions that health promotion can make to people’s and societies’ well-being ...

24th World Conference on Health Promotion

The 24^th IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion will provide a unique opportunity to take stock of strategies and actions that can be taken to align policies with health, well-being and equity objectives  (e.g. Health in All Policies), and to reinvigorate all sectors of society and all regions of the world concerned with supporting health and well-being. This will be an opportunity for researchers, health practitioners and decision makers and other sectors critical to population health to exchange knowledge and share experiences on progress and challenges in better aligning policies for the promotion of population health equity and well-being.

The theme for the 24^th IUHPE world conference in 2022 is Promoting policies for health, well-being and equity. 

District nurses' perspectives on health-promotive and disease-preventive work at primary health care centres: A qualitative study

Health promotion and disease prevention are of utmost importance for sustainable health care and primary health care. District nurses play a key role in primary health care centres, where they meet people suffering from, and/or having risk factors for, non-communicable diseases.

he district nurses described health-promotive endeavours, in line with person-centred care in prioritising building relationships with patients, starting from their lived experience. They spoke of barriers, at both micro and macro levels, to health-promotive/disease-preventive work. These included language barriers, the impact of the media, and the overall organisation of primary health care. 

Effectiveness of a community-integrated intermediary care (CIIC) service model to enhance family-based long-term care for Thai older adults in Chiang Mai, Thailand: a cluster-randomized controlled trial TCTR20190412004

Populations around the world are ageing faster, with the majority living in low- and middle-income countries where health and social care are yet to be universal and inclusive for the ageing population. This community-integrated intermediary care (CIIC) model is a novel prevention-based, long-term care model enhancing the family-based care system traditionally practised in Thailand and neighbouring Asian countries, and many low-and middle-income countries globally. This study assessed the effectiveness of the CIIC model in Chiang Mai, Thailand.