Promoting Health in a Rural Community in the Basque Country by Leveraging Health Assets Identified through a Community Health Diagnosis

Abstract

Salutogenesis focuses on factors that generate health and is a useful construct for identifying factors that promote health and for guiding activities to this end. This article describes health assets identified in a community diagnosis and how to leverage them with actions for improvement to deepen the understanding of this concept and its impact on health promotion. An intervention strategy was designed following the principles of participatory action research (PAR). The study was carried out in Mañaria (Basque Country, Spain) using semi-structured and in-depth interviews, participant observation, desk review, and photographs, alongside different participatory strategies. Twenty-six women were interviewed, 21 of whom were community inhabitants, and five were key informants who worked in public or private institutions. Participant recruitment stopped when data saturation was reached. Data were analysed through discourse analysis, progressive coding, and categorisation. Six meta-categories emerged, and for each of these categories, health assets were identified together with actions to improve the community’s health. The latter were presented by the community to the authorities to trigger specific actions towards improving the health of the community. Identification of health assets led to different actions to improve the health of the community including improving the existing physical and social environments, personal and group skills, and the promotion of physical, social, emotional and cultural well-being.

Professional Perspectives on Children’s Health Assets: A Delphi Study

“…The concrete proposals involving the different services and resources shared through this research were valued as real, adequate, and possible, reflecting the high involvement and motivation of the professionals working with children in the neighbourhood and the need to give visibility and support to the actions that are already being carried out . This last result coincides with the findings of another study in a rural community [ 38 ]. The previous study also highlighted the importance of improving and deepening coordination between the different services, as well as planning and monitoring actions .…”

“…In addition, no research has been performed in Spain on professionals’ perceptions of children’s HAs, contextualised in a specific community. Although there are some studies on HAs in local communities that included professionals in social and health sectors among their participants [ 38 ].…”