Professionals' Perspectives on Facilitating and Hindering Factors of Implementing Health Promotion Programs in Organizational Settings (SCS)

Professionals' Perspectives on Facilitating and Hindering Factors of Implementing Health Promotion Programs in Organizational Settings: a Qualitative Comparative Study in Austria

Background:

In the field of health promotion, the 'setting approach' has gained increased attention over the last decades. Following this approach, organizations and governments are urged to invest in health and health promotion. However, the dissatisfaction with the broad definition of the term 'setting' has grown. As many health promotion programs are carried out in organizational settings, substantial work has been done on how to acknowledge organizational factors in designing and implementing health promotion programs. Organizational settings differ from others because they can also address their clients as beneficiaries of health promotion programs, also known as 'client-oriented health promotion'. Among the most prominent organizational settings for health promotion are schools and hospitals, and more recently, long-term care (LTC-) facilities. However, dissemination and implementation of client-oriented health promotion in organizational settings seem to be very challenging. Most approaches dealing with barriers to health promotion implementation in schools, hospitals, and LTC-facilities rarely reflect the specific organizational characteristics. This negligence constitutes both, a research gap in the setting approach and in the design of health promotion practice. Hence, the aim of this study is to explore professionals' (teachers', health professionals', care aids') views and attitudes that influence the implementation of client-oriented health promotion programs between schools, hospitals, and LTC-facilities in Austria.

Methods:

With that aim in mind, the investigators chose a comparative qualitative design. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with 90 professionals (30 in schools, 30 in hospitals, and 30 in LTC-facilities). In addition, non-participant observations as well as an extensive document analysis in each setting will be undertaken. The data will be analyzed by thematic analysis. Comparisons within as well as between the organizational settings will be conducted using selected categories.

Discussion:

To date, this study is the first of its kind that compares results of individual semi-structured interviews between different organizational settings. This study investigates professionals' views and attitudes on facilitating and hindering factors of implementing client-oriented health promotion programs and thus will provide a solid basis for future research activities and evaluation studies in the field of health promotion implementation.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Health Promotion; Organizations

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 90

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

The aim of this study is to investigate professionals' (teachers', health professionals', care aids') views and attitudes that influence the implementation of client-oriented health promotion programs in organizational settings in Austria. Therefore, 90 professionals will be interviewed: 30 in schools, 30 in hospitals, and 30 in LTC-facilities.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Professionals from different levels of the organizational hierarchies
• Professionals from different professional groups
• Professionals with preferably differing views on the usefulness of the health promotion program

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Professionals' perspectives towards the implementation process of health promotion programs compositely measured by qualitative semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation	Semi-structured interviews: During different stages of the implementation process, a number of professionals responsible for implementation in each organizational setting are invited for an in-depth interview to gain insight into the implementation of the health promotion program. An interview guide is used to ask participants about the program's content, recruitment, fidelity, and satisfaction with the dissemination strategy, and overall satisfaction with the health promotion program. Facilitators and barriers for implementation, as well as intentions and opportunities for future implementation of health promotion programs are discussed. Non-participant observation: In addition, it is observed how professionals across schools, hospitals, and LTC-facilities implement the health promotion program. Non-participant observation is conducted two times in each organizational setting.	9 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Investigation of formal prerequisites of the implementation process measured by extensive document analysis	Documentary data, such as organizational charts or program descriptions of the health promotion programs, are gathered. Therewith, the investigators analyze formal structures and processes within the organizations as well as the formal requirements and goals of the health promotion program.	9 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft
• Collaborators: Ludwig Boltzmann Institut Health Promotion Research

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: February 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): March 1, 2015
• Study Completion (Anticipated): March 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 13, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 20, 2014
• First Posted (Estimate): November 24, 2014

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): November 24, 2014
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 20, 2014
• Last Verified: November 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: comparison; health promotion; qualitative study; implementation research; organization; setting approach
• Other Study ID Numbers: LBG:1554