PromoACTIVA-SC: A Tool Aiming at Identifying Health Promotion Practice of Civil Society Organizations

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Promotion
• Social Determinants of Health

Background:

• Health promotion, as defined by the WHO, emphasizes enabling individuals to control their health, focusing on social determinants.
• Civil society engagement is crucial for health initiatives, offering empowerment, service delivery, and policy participation.
• Assessing civil society organizations' (CSOs) health promotion actions is difficult due to a lack of evaluation tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop 'PromoACTIVA-SC', a tool to assess CSOs' health promotion practices.
• To identify essential actions within the health promotion process for CSOs.

Main Methods:

• Documentary analysis and expert validation were used to develop 'PromoACTIVA-SC'.
• Cognitive interviews and pilot testing with CSOs ensured tool comprehensibility and usability.

Main Results:

• The final 'PromoACTIVA-SC' questionnaire has 8 phases and 40 items, showing good content validity.
• The tool effectively maps CSO practices and pinpoints areas for enhancement in health promotion.
• CSOs can utilize the tool for self-assessment and collaborative health and disease prevention efforts.

Conclusions:

• 'PromoACTIVA-SC' is the inaugural tool for evaluating civil society's role in health promotion.
• Future applications will clarify the extent of CSO participation in health promotion and policy.
• The tool can foster CSO involvement in health policy and administration, improving public health outcomes.