Evaluation of the promising neighbourhoods community program to reduce health inequalities in youth: a protocol of a mixed-methods study

Abstract

Background Reducing socioeconomic health inequalities among youth is a major challenge for governments around the world and reports on successful attempts are scarce. Socioecological and integral approaches with collaborative partnerships and community engagement are recommended but knowledge about the effectiveness and effective and ineffective elements is limited. The Promising Neighbourhoods program employs such an approach aiming to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in health, safety and talent development in youth. We will evaluate the process-implementation, and effectiveness of the Promising Neighbourhoods program. Methods/design Core elements of Promising Neighbourhoods are a collaborative community programming approach with stakeholders, data-based priority setting, knowledge-, and theory-based policies and evidence-based interventions. Community stakeholders and key-leaders from the neighbourhoods are engaged in the program. For this evaluation study the program will be implemented in three intervention neighbourhoods. These neighbourhoods will be compared to three control neighbourhoods at baseline in 2018/2019 and at follow-up in 2020/2021 after full implementation of the Promising Neighbourhoods program. Intervention neighbourhoods receive a tailored intervention-package including evidence-based interventions and additional measures by community stakeholders. In control neighbourhoods, no special planning will take place thus interventions are offered as usual. A mixed-methods approach following the stages of the logic model from program is applied for this evaluation. Questionnaires, focus groups, and registration data will be collected among community stakeholders, key-leaders, and youth to evaluate the process-implementation of the program. Indicators of intermediate and ultimate outcomes will be studied among N = 818 children and N = 818 youngsters using difference-in-difference regression analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of the Promising Neighbourhoods program. Discussion Hypotheses are that a collaborative community approach with stakeholders leads to clear priority-setting and better tailored interventions of better quality. We further hypothesise a decline in socioeconomic inequalities in intermediate and ultimate outcomes for health, safety and talent development in the intervention neighbourhoods in comparison to control neighbourhoods. The results add knowledge about effective and ineffective elements of collaborative community programming approaches to reduce health inequalities in youth and thus are relevant for local and national public health authorities. Trial registration Netherlands National Trial Register number NL7279 . Date of registration: 26-Sept-2018.

Family Socioeconomic Status and Exposure to Childhood Trauma: Racial Differences

“…We already know that being in high-risk neighborhoods and interacting with high-risk peers are major risk factors for behavioral problems and poor outcomes [ 93 ]. As the environment is modifiable by policy, there is a need to address segregation and environmental risk in predominantly NHB schools and neighborhoods [ 94 ].…”

Changes in youth care use after the implementation of community-based support teams: repeated measurement study using registry data and data on team characteristics

“…33 An important part of this programme is collaborative planning of preventive measures and interventions at the neighbourhood level focusing on an increased use of evidence-based preventive interventions especially on the domain of mental health promotion. 34 Furthermore, the community-based support teams may have increased the availability, accessibility and acceptability for primary youth care, which may have resulted in a reduced gap between those in need for care and actually receiving care. Earlier studies found improved access to care as a result of integrated forms of care 35 36 and colocation of social workers.…”

Prevalence of overweight among Dutch primary school children living in JOGG and non-JOGG areas

“…EPODE demands substantial investments in terms of money, time, and effort from all stakeholders, which makes their acclaim remarkable given the absence of systematic evidence for the approach’s effectiveness. Multiple study protocols have been published [ 13 – 15 ], but only four studies describe the adaptations’ effectiveness. An evaluation of the Belgian adaptation showed a trend towards a decrease in overweight ( p = .05), and overweight + obesity ( p = .06) in pilot towns compared to the general population [ 16 ].…”