Gantner Leigh A, Olson Christine M
Department of Public Health, Food Studies, and Nutrition, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
Eval Program Plann. 2012 Aug;35(3):407-16. doi: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2012.01.002. Epub 2012 Jan 13.
Community-based interventions to promote healthy weights by making environmental and policy changes in communities may be an important strategy in reversing the obesity epidemic. However, challenges faced by local public health professionals in facilitating effective environmental and policy change need to be better understood and addressed. To better understand capacity-building needs, this study evaluated the efforts of the Healthy Start Partnership, a university-community project to promote healthy weights in young families in a rural eight-county area of upstate New York. Qualitative interviews (n=30) and pre/post surveys (n=31) were conducted over three years of the intervention. Challenges faced by partners significantly slowed progress of environmental interventions in some communities. First, many partners did not feel their "regular" jobs afforded them sufficient time to do community work. Second, many partners did not feel they had the personal political power to work on broader environmental, policy, or system change issues. Third, facilitating and policy change and reaching out to non-traditional partners, like businesses, required developing a new set of public health skills. Fourth, the long-time frame of environmental and policy work meant that many efforts would exceed the grant period. Building local public health leaders for environmental and policy change necessitates that these challenges are acknowledged and addressed.
通过在社区中进行环境和政策变革来促进健康体重的社区干预措施，可能是扭转肥胖流行趋势的一项重要策略。然而，当地公共卫生专业人员在推动有效的环境和政策变革时所面临的挑战，需要得到更好的理解和应对。为了更好地了解能力建设需求，本研究评估了“健康开端伙伴关系”的工作，这是一个大学与社区合作的项目，旨在纽约州北部一个农村八县地区促进年轻家庭的健康体重。在为期三年的干预过程中，进行了定性访谈（n = 30）和前后调查（n = 31）。合作伙伴面临的挑战显著减缓了一些社区环境干预措施的进展。首先，许多合作伙伴觉得他们的“日常”工作没有给他们留出足够的时间来开展社区工作。其次，许多合作伙伴觉得他们没有个人政治权力来处理更广泛的环境、政策或系统变革问题。第三，推动政策变革并与企业等非传统合作伙伴接触，需要培养一套新的公共卫生技能。第四，环境和政策工作的长期性质意味着许多努力将超出拨款期限。为环境和政策变革培养当地公共卫生领导者，必须认识并应对这些挑战。
