RHP&EO is the electronic journal of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education

The Role Of Local Groups In Community Based Injury Prevention

Siv Garborg

Unit of Health Promotion, National Institute of Public Health Oslo, Norway

INTRODUCTION

The present project is a community based injury intervention programme based on feedback of injury information to local groups in the municipality. The aim of the study is to describe the process and results of community intervention through work of local groups.

METHOD

The method will be both quantitative and qualitative. All members of the groups will take part in two surveys; one in the beginning of the project-period and one in the end. All groups will also keep a workbook or a minute from each meeting.

In the qualitative analysis, four groups will be studied. The qualitative approach will partly take place as non participation observation, formal interviews and informal conversations.

THEORETICAL APPROACH

Traditional approaches in health promotion have been focused on the individual, and there has been given less attention to the social context in which the individual acts. In this study it will be important to make visible the structural pattern that underlies a given set of social processes. This does not exclude the importance of personal motivation or socio-demographic variables, such as age, gender, education or occupation. An important challenge will be to avoid the polarity between macro and micro, which tends to limit lots of sociological analysis.

RESULTS

15 municipalities have established local groups and participate in the study. The local work groups were established during the first 10 months of 1994, and consist of 3 to 11 members. Most of the groups have representatives from both private, public and voluntary sector. The groups initiate, co-ordinate and carry out local injury prevention effort. The activity in the groups and the municipalities is very variable. Some of the groups have had more than 20 meetings, and have had several injury prevention projects during the last two years, while others still seem to have starting problems or motivational problems. The data collection on the activities of the local groups is not yet concluded.

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