[An intervention research program (AAPRISS) to reduce social inequalities in health: methods and validation].

OBJECTIVE

The AAPRISS intervention-research program (Apprendre et Agir Pour Réduire les Inégalités Sociales de Santé) aims to change prevention projects to improve the extent to which they take health inequalities into account. The goal is to assess a project's feasibility and its acceptability, from the viewpoint of the sponsors of the project in question, and to present its tools and potentially-transferable elements.

PARTICIPANTS

Five cancer-prevention projects focused on nutrition have been included in the AAPRISS program: two projects conducted in school, one community-health project conducted in a disadvantaged neighbourhood and two hospital therapeutic-education programes. For each one, a workgroup was created bringing together the project sponsors and their team as well as researchers from various disciplines.

LOCATION

The study involves projects currently underway in the Midi- Pyrénées region of France.

INTERVENTION

AAPRISS is based on the exchange of knowledge among project sponsors and researchers and the co-construction of the analysis, reorientations and the assessment of the prevention projects included in the program. The validation of the program and its feasibility from the project sponsors' point of view is based on a questionnaire and presentations carried out during a symposium that took place in May 2014 in Toulouse.

RESULTS

Twelve key program functions have been described. They have been shown to be feasible and acceptable and concrete project modifications towards a better consideration of social inequalities of health (SIH) have been realized in most of the projects. Co-construction among the stakeholders raises many issues and difficulties that could have been overcome by the establishment of a relationship of trust between project sponsors and researchers.

CONCLUSION

The complexity of the determinants leading to SIH calls for programs that revisit existing projects rather than a new intervention aimed at reducing them.