Paper
Friday, 21 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Strategies to Improve Adult Health
Community as Client and Influence: Health Promotion Behaviors of Women Living in Four Neighborhoods
Robin Toft Klar, DNSc, Graduate School of Nursing, University of Massachusetts, Worcester, Worcester, MA, USA
Learning Objective #1: Identify measurable community variables that influence health promoting behaivors.
Learning Objective #2: Describe multilevel methodology useful for community nursing research.
Purpose: Healthy People 2010 highlights the influence of the intersection of individual behaviors and environmental factors as determinants of health. This study used Pender’s revised Health Promotion Model (rHPM) to guide the inquiry of the relationship between interpersonal influences and community situational influences on women, from four distinct neighborhoods, engaging in health promotion behaviors. Social ecology was used to further expand the rHPM so that community variables could be tested.

Methods: A multi-level methodological approach was used. Data gathered at the individual level examined health promotion behaviors (HPLP-II), social support behaviors (ISSB), social networks (ASSIS), and demographics. Community level data were gathered from secondary (U.S. Census and police crime statistics) and primary sources (survey of community situational influences). Descriptive statistics, correlations, and multiple regressions were conducted.

Results: A stratified, according to crime statistics, random sample of 47 women who live in four separate neighborhoods within the same municipality was obtained. There was a statistically significant difference between neighborhoods of crime exposure and community-level influences: options available (p<.001), demand characteristics (p<.001), and aesthetics (p< .001). Spouses and friends were the social network members who provided socially supportive behaviors at statistically significant levels.

Conclusions and Implications: Community does serve as both our client and an indicator of health. Many of the disparities noted during this study are the result of unequal policy implementation and enforcement. Community can also serve as the intervention.

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See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)