‘Improving Health through Reducing Stress’: Parents’ Priorities in the Participatory Development of a Multilevel Family Health Programme in a Low-Income Neighbourhood in The Netherlands

Gerda Wink, Gerdine Fransen, Merel Huisman, Sandra Boersma, Lieke van Disseldorp, Koos van der Velden, Annemarie Wagemakers and Maria van den Muijsenbergh
Additional contact information
Gerda Wink: Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Gerdine Fransen: Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Merel Huisman: Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Sandra Boersma: Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Lieke van Disseldorp: Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Koos van der Velden: Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Annemarie Wagemakers: Health & Society Group, Wageningen University & Research, 6700 EW Wageningen, The Netherlands
Maria van den Muijsenbergh: Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Medical Centre, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 15, 1-16

Abstract: In order to reduce health inequities, a socio-ecological approach and community engagement are needed to develop sustained interventions with a positive effect on the health of disadvantaged groups. This qualitative study was part of the development phase of a community health promotion programme. The study aimed to provide insight into the perceptions of parents in a disadvantaged neighbourhood about health, and their priorities for the community health programme. It also described the process of integrating these perceptions in the development of a multilevel plan for this programme. Participatory methods were applied to enable the engagement of all groups involved. Ten parents from a low-income neighbourhood in the Netherlands participated in five panel sessions. Parents’ priorities for improving family health were reducing chronic stress and not so much healthy eating and physical activity. They prioritised solutions to reduce their financial stress, to provide a safe place for their children to meet and play and to establish good quality communication with authorities. The programme development process resulted in objectives in which both parents and professionals were willing to invest, such as a safe playground for children. This study shows that target population engagement in health programme development is possible and valuable.

Keywords: health inequities; low-income neighbourhood; perceptions of health; family health; community engagement; multilevel intervention; programme development; participatory action research; intervention logic; health promotion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/15/8145/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/15/8145/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:15:p:8145-:d:606462

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().