Social integration and health behavioral change in San Luis, Honduras

This study explores the effects of social integration on behavioral change in the course of an intensive, community-based public health intervention. The intervention trained volunteers and mobilized local organizations to promote 16 key family health practices in rural San Luis, Honduras, during 2004 to 2006. A mixed methods approach is used. Standard household sample surveys were performed in 22 villages before and after the intervention. Eight villages were then resurveyed. A household survey, focus groups, and key informant interviews measured health behaviors and several social structural and psychosocial variables. The villages were then ranked on their mean behavioral and social integration scores. The quantitative and qualitative rankings were in close agreement (Kendall's coefficient of concordance = .707, p < .001). Behaviors changed most markedly in the villages where respondents participated in local organizations, observed that others performed those behaviors, and depended on their neighbors for support. The results show that social integration conditions health behavioral change. Health interventions can be made more effective by analyzing these features a priori.