Abstract
Research highlights that asset-based community development where local residents become equal partners in service development may help promote health and well-being. This paper outlines baseline results of a coproduction evaluation of an asset-based approach to improving health and well-being within a small community through promoting tobacco control. Local residents were recruited and trained as community researchers to deliver a smoking prevalence survey within their local community and became local health champions, promoting health and well-being. The results of the survey will be used to inform health promotion activities within the community. The local smoking prevalence was higher than the regional and national averages. Half of the households surveyed had at least one smoker, and 63.1% of children lived in a smoking household. Nonsmokers reported higher well-being than smokers; however, the differences were not significant. Whilst the community has a high smoking prevalence, more than half of the smokers surveyed would consider quitting. Providing smoking cessation advice in GP surgeries may help reduce smoking prevalence in this community. Work in the area could be done to reduce children's exposure to smoking in the home.
Highlights
Public health initiatives tend to be complex and context specific and it is essential that they are evaluated to prove effectiveness
Whether this will have any impact on children’s exposure to second-hand smoke in the home remains to be seen. This service to be evaluated was led by a consortium of health service providers who were commissioned to identify and promote the assets within a community in order to develop services which fit local need. Whilst this programme of work involves many different elements, this paper focuses on the knowledge inquiry phase which involved the development of a community led survey which aimed to ascertain smoking prevalence within the community, as well as examining attitudes towards smoking cessation, smoking in public places, and smoking in the presence of children
Three training sessions were conducted with members of the community who had been identified via the asset mapping exercise
Summary
Public health initiatives tend to be complex and context specific and it is essential that they are evaluated to prove effectiveness. Most evidences informing public health policy tend to be in the form of tightly controlled, intervention trials conducted by universities which raises questions around the transferability of research to “real world” practice [1]. Whilst many see researchers from academia and public health practitioners as coming from two different worlds, the boundaries between them are often smaller than many believe [2]. A coproduction approach to health initiatives involving researchers and public health practitioners working together could lead to evidence which is more translational into real world practice [3,4,5]. Experts are parachuted into communities that are defined by their perceived deficiencies, referred to as “areas of multiple deprivation” or “areas of high crime,” to offer treatment to individuals characterised as “smokers,” “alcoholics,” or “drug addicts.”. It is possible to develop services which
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
