PubMed Health⌕ Search

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Community Participation”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Community participation in organising rural general practice: is it sustainable?

OBJECTIVE: We analysed community participation in organising rural general medical practice in order to suggest ways to extend and sustain it. DESIGN: A multisite, embedded case-study design collecting data through semistructured interviews, non-participation observation and a document analysis. SETTING: One remote and two rural communities in Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Community members, GPs, health professionals, government officers and rural medical workforce consultants. RESULTS: High levels of community participation in recruiting and retaining GPs, organising the business model, and contributing to practice infrastructure were evident. Community participation in designing health care was uncommon. Participation was primarily to ensure viable general practice services necessary to strengthen the social and economic fabric of the community. There were factors about the decision-making and partnership processes in each of the communities that threatened the viability of community participation. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend that a concept of community development and explicit facilitation of the processes involved is necessary to strengthen participation, create effective partnerships and ensure inclusive decision-making.

Community Health Planning↗

Community-based HIV/AIDS research--whither community participation? Unsolved problems in a research programme in rural Uganda.

Involvement of the study community in research on HIV/AIDS has presented the MRC/UVRI programme in rural Uganda with a multi-layered challenge. A typology developed in agricultural research which defines different levels of community participation in research is described where participation may be at 'contract', 'consultative', 'collaborative' and 'collegiate' level (each level indicating an increasing degree of community participation). Community involvement in the MRC/UVRI Programme is then outlined and the typology applied. It is shown that the majority of community participation in the Programme is at the contract level since the nature of the research programme as a 'foreign imposition' with 'foreign goals' has precluded the involvement of the community in much of the policy development and research planning. However, it is noted that as the Programme becomes more established in the area community influence grows and signs of community impact on policy and increased research inputs are beginning to be seen. The question is raised as to whether it is realistic to expect that externally imposed health research, particularly on sensitive topics, can ever be truly community participatory research.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Influence of health promotion bureaucracy on community participation: a Canadian case study.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate, through a Canadian case study, the bureaucratic support and obstacles for community participation in health promotion. The paper begins with a brief history of the development of a participatory health promotion programme in Canada. The role of bureaucracies on participation of communities is highlighted. Secondly, the paper describes how a variety of bureaucratic factors affected grassroots community participation efforts of local projects in one province. Finally, discussion focuses on how community participation is constrained in a bureau-cratically mediated activity such as health promotion.

Canada↗

Preliminary results for the PAR-PRO: a measure of home and community participation.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a measure of home and community participation related to the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of survey data. SETTING: Nine medical inpatient rehabilitation facilities from 6 states. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 594 patients of mixed impairment type admitted for inpatient rehabilitation in 2002. Mean age was 74.0 years and 61.4% were women. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Reliability and validity of the participation instrument. RESULTS: A 20-item instrument of home and community participation was developed (PAR-PRO). The instrument showed good internal consistency and good Rasch person and item fit statistics. Four subfactors were identified beyond the unidimensional construct of participation including domestic management, socialization, physical vigor, and generative activities. The PAR-PRO total participation score correlated inversely with age (r=-.31, P<.001) but did not differ by sex. CONCLUSIONS: The 20-item PAR-PRO instrument of home and community participation displayed good psychometric characteristics. The instrument shows promise as a broad measure of home and community involvement for persons with disabilities. Further work is needed to support its application for people without disability.

Activities of Daily Living↗

Community participation within a primary health care programme.

Based on experiences made in rural communities of Tanzania, aspects of community participation in schistosomiasis control within a primary health care (PHC) programme are discussed. Community participation is seen as prerequisite for PHC. Building up community participation can not be disease- or even symptom-orientated, it must be community problem-orientated. The assessment of village priorities as they are recognized by the community governs any control strategy based on PHC. As schistosomiasis is often not first ranking among community problems, schistosomiasis control must become part of a multisectorial approach to improve community health. This process can initiate and ensure community participation and may lead to cost-effective control measures within PHC.

Adolescent↗

Public roles of US physicians: community participation, political involvement, and collective advocacy.

CONTEXT: Whether physicians have a professional responsibility to address health-related issues beyond providing care to individual patients has been vigorously debated. Yet little is known about practicing physicians' attitudes about or the extent to which they participate in public roles, which we defined as community participation, political involvement, and collective advocacy. OBJECTIVES: To determine the importance physicians assign to public roles, their participation in related activities, and sociodemographic and practice factors related to physicians' rated levels of importance and activity. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Mail survey conducted between November 2003 and June 2004 of 1662 US physicians engaged in direct patient care selected from primary care specialties (family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics) and 3 non-primary care specialties (anesthesiology, general surgery, cardiology). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Rated importance of community participation, political involvement, collective advocacy, and relevant self-reported activities encompassing the previous 3 years; rated importance of physician action on different issues. RESULTS: Community participation, political involvement, and collective advocacy were rated as important by more than 90% of respondents, and a majority rated community participation and collective advocacy as very important. Nutrition, immunization, substance abuse, and road safety issues were rated as very important by more physicians than were access-to-care issues, unemployment, or illiteracy. Two thirds of respondents had participated in at least 1 of the 3 types of activities in the previous 3 years. Factors independently related to high overall rating of importance (civic-mindedness) included age, female sex, underrepresented race/ethnicity, and graduation from a non-US or non-Canadian medical school. Civic mindedness, medical specialty, practice type, underrepresented race/ethnicity, preceptors of physicians in training, rural practice, and graduation from a non-US or non-Canadian medical school were independently related to civic activity. CONCLUSIONS: Public roles are definable entities that have widespread support among physicians. Civic-mindedness is associated primarily with sociodemographic factors, but civic action is associated with specialty and practice-based factors.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Community participation in externally funded health projects: lessons from Cambodia.

This article provides lessons learned on establishing effective community participation in two externally funded, NGO-implemented health projects working at district level in Cambodia. The first project was implemented in accordance with the Cambodian national guidelines on community participation. The second - using lessons and experiences gained as a result of the first project - worked with Buddhist pagoda volunteers. Primary research was conducted in both settings to assess the effectiveness of the two participation strategies. The article concludes that the success of community participation in externally funded health projects with relatively short implementation timeframes requires engagement with existing community-based organizations and agencies. In Cambodia, where Theravada Buddhism is the dominant religion, pagodas and associated volunteers appear to represent such an organization. Community participation structured around pagoda volunteers - who are held in high esteem within their local communities - is more effective and sustainable than newly (and externally) established community structures with formally elected representatives. Pagodas and associated volunteers in rural Cambodia offer the advantages of effective leadership, local organization, resource mobilization and management. It is recommended that programmes and agencies wishing to adopt community participation strategies in health utilize participatory research to identify the most appropriate local organization to lead such initiatives.

Adolescent↗

[Community participation in the control of Aedes aegypti: opinions of the population in one section of Havana, Cuba].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze opinions on community participation held by residents of one section of the city of Havana, Cuba, in order to identify key criteria to use in preparing a participatory strategy for controlling the Aedes aegypti mosquito. METHODS: The study was conducted from September to October 1999 in Playa, one of the 15 municipios (districts) that make up the city of Havana, Cuba. In the first phase of the study, interviews were carried out with key informants, including health brigade members and sanitation activists, who had lived in Playa for more than five years. The key informants were selected randomly from the nine health areas that the Playa municipio has. Qualitative content analysis was used to identify terms, common expressions, and key concepts related to community participation in the area. In the study's second phase a questionnaire using a Likert scale was prepared for application with a population sample from Playa. Based on the answers from the respondents, a point score with a confidence interval was calculated for each of the 30 statements on the questionnaire. The point scores for those statements were used to identify the population's most relevant criteria, that is, the statements producing the strongest agreement and the ones producing the strongest disagreement. RESULTS: In the first phase, from the interviews with key informants, the three most important variables to explore were identified as: (1) community participation in environmental cleanup, (2) the role and image of community leaders and of community organizations, and (3) community participation, in a general sense, in solving any problem in the community. In the second phase, the population survey indicated that the members of the community recognized the usefulness of community participation in solving local problems, especially for controlling A. aegypti. Among the statements on the questionnaire that had the highest levels of agreement were ones dealing with the value of working together as a team, the knowledge that local authorities had of community problems, and recognition of the obligation that citizens have to take part in developing the community. The statements that had the lowest level of agreement had to do with the need to reward-with more than just words of thanks-residents who regularly serve the community and with the view that the majority of community leaders were more concerned with their personal well-being than with the problems of the community. CONCLUSIONS: The opinions on community participation identified among the population in Playa served as the basis for designing new strategies for controlling A. aegypti. The methodology utilized in this study could be used to plan local participatory processes, both in Cuba and in other countries, and could be applied to other problems whose solution requires community participation.

Aedes↗

Community participation in vector control: lessons from Chagas' disease.

As applied to vector-borne disease control, the term community participation has been broadly interpreted. Community-based vector control projects have been described as having both active and passive components. Recently, community participation in organized efforts to control Chagas' disease has become more dynamic, with increasingly active involvement by local community members. Chagas' disease is a particularly significant vector-borne disease problem in the South American countries of Brazil, Venezuela, and Bolivia, and health officials there are beginning to emphasize horizontal or decentralized approaches to control of triatomine vectors. Experience suggests that vector control programs using community participation have significant and sustainable impact on vector density, appear to be more cost-effective than purely vertically structured programs, are readily integrated with other health or development programs, promote an enduring sense of pride in home and community, and are politically viable vector control strategies. Community participation per se has inherent value because of its positive effect on social relationships and community solidarity. Moreover, it is a dynamic process that results in accrued benefits for public health that exceed most vector control program goals and persist well beyond program termination.

Animals↗

Community participation following cerebrovascular accident: impact of the buffering model of social support.

This study examined data of older adults who had sustained a stroke and their ability to participate in the community following rehabilitation. There were 95 participants in this study to determine the interaction effect of functional limitation and social support on community participation. The findings indicate that for people who had sustained a cerebrovascular accident, community participation was more related to their ability to do for themselves, rather than the support that was available to them. The implications of these findings for future practice, programs, and research are discussed.

Activities of Daily Living↗

The influence of perceived pain on satisfaction with community participation after hospital discharge.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between pain and satisfaction with community participation for patients with stroke approximately 4 months after discharge from inpatient medical rehabilitation. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study from 2001 to 2002 using information from the IT HealthTrack database. SETTING: Community based. PARTICIPANTS: The study included 1673 patients with stroke aged 40 years or older discharged from inpatient medical rehabilitation. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary measures included pain ratings and satisfaction with community participation. RESULTS: The sample was 49.4% female and 81.1% non-Hispanic white. One third of the sample reported mild to severe pain. Pain ratings showed a significant and inverse association with satisfaction with community participation. The association remained significant with adjustment for possible confounding factors and with stratification by right and left body involvement. Each 1-level increase in pain rating score (range, 0-10) was associated with a 12% decreased odds ratio (OR=.88; 95% confidence interval, .84-.93) of being satisfied with community participation after adjustment for age, sex, marital status, ethnicity, and motor and cognitive functional status. CONCLUSIONS: In persons with stroke, high pain rating scores were significantly associated with lower satisfaction with community participation. Effective pain management may increase level of satisfaction with community participation in persons with stroke.

Adult↗

Process evaluation for community participation.

This review provides a synthesis of published public health and social science literature to determine how process evaluation has been used to examine community participation and its intermediary role in health and social change outcomes. Community participation is defined, and its relationship to other community-development principles and evaluation and research methods is described. Then, case studies and research initiatives help answer questions such as who participates and why? What are the benefits and challenges of community participation? What qualitative and quantitative methods are used in process evaluations to measure community participation? What measures are used to help define the influence of community participation in community-based interventions? A better understanding of these issues is needed to ensure that community participation is valued and used effectively to plan and implement health-promotion initiatives and evaluate their processes and outcomes.

Behavioral Research↗

Community participation in HIV prevention: problems and prospects for community-based strategies among female sex workers in Madras.

The concept of strengthening community action within the context of HIV prevention is gaining popularity among health circles, with organizations such as gay volunteer groups in the U.S. providing positive evidence of the potential role of community participation in HIV/AIDS prevention and care efforts. Care must be taken, however, in assuming that participation can easily be achieved among all high-risk groups. This paper examines problems and prospects for participation in HIV prevention strategies among commercial sex workers (CSWs) in Madras. Based upon the experiences of a pilot project established by the Tamil Nadu State Government AIDS Cell and WHO, it finds that the organization of the commercial sex trade in Madras is not highly conducive to collective action. Identifying factors that have frustrated attempts to promote community-based strategies in the city, the paper suggests that this approach is unlikely to succeed unless there are significant changes to the institutional arrangements that keep sex workers in a position of subordination and exploitation.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Two sequential randomized trials of community participation to recruit women for mammographic screening.

BACKGROUND: If mammographic screening is to reduce mortality from breast cancer, it is essential that a high proportion of the target population attend for screening. In order to achieve this, effective recruitment strategies are needed. This paper reports two trials of recruitment strategies for mammographic screening involving eight communities in rural New South Wales (NSW), Australia. METHODS: Each trial involved two matched pairs of towns in the Hunter Valley region of NSW. Towns were randomly allocated to intervention, receiving either mass media promotion or community participation in Trial 1 and community participation or family physician involvement in Trial 2. RESULTS: In Trial 1, significantly higher attendance rates were observed in the two towns that received the community participation intervention compared with their matched media promotion towns (63% vs 34%, P < 0.001 and 51% vs 34%, P < 0.01). In Trial 2, a significantly higher attendance rate was observed in one town that received the family physician involvement intervention compared with its matched town which received the community participation intervention (68% vs 51%, P < 0.01). There was no significant difference in attendance in the other pair of towns (68% vs 58%, P = 0.11). CONCLUSIONS: Both community participation and family practitioner involvement are more promising strategies for the promotion of attendance at mammographic screening facilities than media promotion alone.

Adult↗

Community participation in a multisectoral intervention to address health determinants in an inner-city community in central Havana.

It is increasingly acknowledged that the process of community involvement is critical to the successful implementation of community-based health interventions. Between 1995 and 1999, a multisectoral intervention called Plan Cayo Hueso was launched in the inner-city community of Cayo Hueso in Havana, Cuba, to address a variety of health determinants. To provide a better understanding of the political structures and processes involved, the Cuban context is described briefly. The interventions included improvements in housing, municipal infrastructure, and social and cultural activities. A qualitative study, consisting of interviews of key informants as well as community members, was conducted to evaluate the community participatory process. Questions from an extensive household survey pre- and postintervention that had been conducted in Cayo Hueso and a comparison community to assess the effectiveness of the intervention also informed the analysis of community participation, as did three community workshops held to choose indicators for evaluating effectiveness and to discuss findings. It was found that formal leaders led the interventions, providing the institutional driving force behind the plan. However, extensive community involvement occurred as the project took advantage of the existing community-based organizations, which played an active role in mobilizing community members and enhanced linkage systems critical to the project's success. Women played fairly traditional roles in interventions outside their households, but had equivalent roles to men in interventions within their household units. Most impressive about this project was the extent of mobilization to participate and the multidimensional ecosystem approach adopted. Indeed, Plan Cayo Hueso involved a massive mobilization of international, national, and community resources to address the needs of this community. This, as well as the involvement of community residents in the evaluation process, was seen as resulting in improved social interactions and community well-being and enhanced capacity for future action. While Cuba is unique in many respects, the lessons learned about enhancing community participation in urban health intervention projects, as well as in their evaluation, are applicable worldwide.

Community Health Planning↗

Health promotion through self-care and community participation: elements of a proposed programme in the developing countries.

BACKGROUND: The concepts of health promotion, self-care and community participation emerged during 1970s, primarily out of concerns about the limitation of professional health system. Since then there have been rapid growth in these areas in the developed world, and there is evidence of effectiveness of such interventions. These areas are still in infancy in the developing countries. There is a window of opportunity for promoting self care and community participation for health promotion. DISCUSSION: A broad outline is proposed for designing a health promotion programme in developing countries, following key strategies of the Ottawa Charter for health promotion and principles of self care and community participation. Supportive policies may be framed. Self care clearinghouses may be set up at provincial level to co-ordinate the programme activities in consultation with district and national teams. Self care may be promoted in the schools and workplaces. For developing personal skills of individuals, self care information, generated through a participatory process, may be disseminated using a wide range of print and audio-visual tools and information technology based tools. One such potential tool may be a personally held self care manual and health record, to be designed jointly by the community and professionals. Its first part may contain basic self care information and the second part may contain outlines of different personally-held health records to be used to record important health and disease related events of an individual. Periodic monitoring and evaluation of the programme may be done. Studies from different parts of the world indicate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of self care interventions. The proposed outline has potential for health promotion and cost reduction of health services in the developing countries, and may be adapted in different situations. SUMMARY: Self care, community participation and health promotion are emerging but dominant areas in the developed countries. Elements of a programme for health promotion in the developing countries following key principles of self care and community participation are proposed. Demonstration programmes may be initiated to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of this programme before large scale implementation.

Community Health Workers↗

Primary health care in Ethiopia under three political systems: community participation in a war-torn society.

This paper examines primary health care (PHC) development with an emphasis on community participation in Ethiopia under the feudal regime of emperor Haile Sellassie, the socialist/military rule of Mengistu Haile Mariam and the sprouting democracy and free market economy of Meles Zenawi. In spite of the rapid expansion of primary care under Mengistu, community participation was hampered by the protracted war and centralized, urban-based, bureaucratic approaches and attitudes that failed to promote an enabling environment for community participation. The socialist government, although implementing various community programs and expanding the rural health services, did not succeed in revolutionizing the health services. A comparative examination of the democratized rebel health services of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) illustrates the inconsistencies between stated policies of the Ethiopian government and actual strategies, and identifies factors promoting and impeding participatory health care development in a war environment. Achievements, opportunities and potential dangers to PHC and community participation in the post-war era characterized by economic progress, democratization, decentralization, lingering ethnic conflict and private initiatives are briefly described.

Community Participation↗