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This paper describes the development of an evaluation framework to document the process, impact and outcomes of a community‐based mental health promotion project. This initiative, the Rural Mental Health Project, is concerned with the promotion of positive mental health in rural communities in the Republic and Northern Ireland. As a community‐based initiative, this project involves multi‐component interventions that are implemented with diverse target groups across a range of community settings. Assessing the process of programme implementation is critical in order to capture and document the realities of programme planning and implementation. The evaluation approach adopted in this project is based on a logic model research paradigm (Scheirer et al, 1995). This model gives equal emphasis to process and outcome evaluation and seeks to relate the realities of programme implementation to intended programme outcomes. Project activity is tracked prospectively in order to examine the detail of actual programme delivery and its influence on expected project outcomes. This paper outlines the model as applied in this project and explores the methodological and practical challenges in evaluating complex community interventions.

Occupational health promotion programmes targeting the Indonesian agricultural farmers (AFs) are limited. This action research aimed to involve the AFs in the research and development of community-based occupational health promotion (COHP) programme, which is tailored to meet their perceived needs for preventing health problems related to occupational workplace.

This study employed the qualitative action research approach. The participants (n = 136) were farmers from seven regions in the rural areas of East Java, Indonesia. The COHP was examined from public health centres (PHCs) in seven regions through eight steps, including recognition, analyses, planning, communication, preparation, implementation, evaluation and continuity of programme, for eight weeks. Data were collected through focus group interviews and examined using qualitative content analysis.

The findings revealed that the participants not only lacked health status but were also required to promote a comprehensive programme for occupational health and safety. The health problems of AFs were identified as the lack of nutrition and high blood pressure, which are related to un-ergonomic condition during work, limited use of personal protective equipment, high stress and workload. The lack of support for AF groups to prevent health problems and to access health services was a key theme for all the participants. Therefore, self-help group as social support was designed to solve the health problems among AFs.

The COHP, through action research, provided a change strategy for AFs to manage and promote occupational health and safety within their practice. The study findings could be used in the development of a framework for PHCs in delivering occupational health and safety practices in the agricultural sectors.

Purpose – A structured comparison, based on underlying social ecological constructs, provides the framework for this preliminary investigation of the commonalities and differences between three emerging approaches to health disparities: community-based participatory research (CBPR), community-focused health outreach (CFHO), and community health promotion programs (CHPP).

Methodology/approach – A conceptual review and preliminary analysis at the macrolevel of major community trends that focus on eliminating health disparity outcomes.

Findings – Each of the three community health approaches share similar purposes using community-focused collaborative efforts, but involve different change agents, levels of partnership, timeframes, social participation, and implementation methodologies.

Research limitations/implications – Additional in-depth literature reviews and meta-evaluations highlighting the contributions of each of the three approaches (CPBR, CFHO, and CHPP) are strongly recommended.

Practical implications – Interested community stakeholders can monitor results and impacts of each of the three approaches within their environments.

Originality/value of paper – Past reviews have concentrated on isolating individual contributing social causes of health disparities. This analysis introduces three emerging trends that currently function within community-based frameworks as potential mechanisms for helping the health disadvantaged.

Smokebusters is a community‐based smoking prevention initiative for young people which aims to prevent them from starting to smoke. Although the number of clubs throughout the UK and Europe has increased over the last decade, there is little evidence of the effectiveness of this initiative. The authors conducted a systematic review of published and unpublished health promotion evaluation reports in an attempt to assess the effectiveness of this intervention. This paper outlines the methodological and practical difficulties encountered when conducting a systematic review of a community‐based health promotion initiative.

Evidence on implementing effective adolescent mental health promotion and prevention interventions in the European context is underdeveloped. The purpose of this paper is to identify evidence-based mental health promotion and prevention interventions for adolescents that have been developed and/or implemented across the school, community and digital settings in Europe. This review also sought to identify the relevant implementation processes in relation to what works, for whom and under what circumstances.

A narrative synthesis of the evidence was conducted which included two stages: a systematic search of studies assessing adolescent mental health promotion and prevention interventions; and a selection of interventions with the most robust evidence base, using pre-defined criteria, that have been either developed and/or implemented in Europe.

A total of 16 interventions met the inclusion criteria. The majority of interventions were school-based programmes. The review findings support the delivery of interventions aimed at enhancing young people’s social and emotional learning (SEL) and preventing behavioural problems. Results indicate that the effective delivery of SEL interventions on a school-wide basis could provide an important platform on which other universal interventions such as anxiety and bullying prevention, and targeted depression prevention could be developed in a multi-tiered fashion. There were a limited number of studies providing robust evidence on the effectiveness of suicide prevention, digital and community-based interventions.

This review identifies a number of robust evidence-based promotion and prevention interventions for promoting adolescent mental health. While the interventions have been implemented in Europe, the majority has not been evaluated rigorously and few included detailed information on the quality of programme implementation. Evidence of the effective cross-cultural transferability of these interventions needs to be strengthened, including more systematic research on their implementation across diverse country contexts.

Despite the well-known positive effects of fruits and vegetables, their consumption in many countries is lower than those recommended. This study aims to systematically examine the effects of community-based interventions on fruits and vegetables consumption in adults.

To collect relevant publications, the authors searched electronic databases including PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus and Web of Science from January 2000 to July 2021. Considering random models, this study analyzed the data using weighted mean differences (WMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Among 1,621 retrieved publications, 21 articles met the inclusion criteria. The overall effect size demonstrated that, at the end of the trials, the educational interventions increased the consumption of aggregated fruits and vegetables (WMD: 0.55 serving/day, 95%CI: 0.34, 0.77), and vegetables (WMD: 0.15, 95%CI: 0.09, 0.21, I2: 33.2%; p = 0.103) in the intervention groups, compared to the control groups.

The subgroup analyses that were based on the type of interventions (face-to-face education compared to online interventions), location (home-based compared to the other types of interventions) and duration (24 weeks and higher) of interventions, and accompanied financial support reduced between-group heterogeneity. An efficient interventional program on increasing fruits and vegetables consumption should be part of a multi-component project.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no systematic review and meta-analysis has provided a summary of the effects of community-based interventions on fruits and vegetables consumption in adult populations, and there is no fixed conclusion that could be drawn in this regard.

Over 60 per cent of adults have at least one modifiable cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor. Community‐based initiatives are a central component of a population‐based CVD risk reduction strategy. Describes the development of an information system in which CHHIOP collected quantitative and qualitative information on heart health activities in communities, distilled the information, and then disseminated it to both local and provincial public health practitioners. The goal was to link science and practice tightly, so professionals received timely and relevant information in order to enhance continuously the quality of the public health programming.

Hartslag Limburg, a cardiovascular diseases (CVD) prevention programme, integrates a community strategy and a high‐risk strategy. The present paper presents the evaluation design for, and baseline data from, the community intervention. The conceptual framework of the community intervention and its evaluation study were based on programme planning and evaluation models. Within this framework, community organization principles and methods and health education theories and methods were applied. Pre‐test/post‐test control group designs were used to study changes at the individual and the organizational level. The baseline results confirm the need to carry out a comprehensive CVD prevention community project, and the appropriateness of the conceptual model that is used for the development of interventions.

This paper discusses the use of diary‐keeping as part of an evaluation of a complex, community‐based health promotion initiative, using the Mobile Information Bus (MIB) as an example. The MIB was designed to provide health and related information for living adolescents in rural areas of Northeast Scotland. The general strengths and limitations of diary‐keeping as a research method are discussed alongside an account of the evaluators' experiences of using this method within the MIB context, as well as suggestions for improving the efficacy of diary‐keeping as a research method. In addition, the results of an extensive literature search on the topic of diaries as a research method are reported. As part of the MIB evaluation, the diary provided a contemporaneous, in‐depth account of the intervention in operation. Those engaged in evaluation of similar types of projects (particularly related to process evaluation) may find the use of a project diary a useful adjunct to other research methods.

This paper aimed to review globally the empowerment programs for the prevention and control of smoking behavior among youths, to examine the role of empowerment in health promotion, to explore the stages of health promotion through community empowerment strategies including planning, implementation and evaluation. Finally, this paper will develop a model of youth empowerment to prevent and control smoking behavior that reflects theory and experience drawn from the literature.

This review synthesized articles on community empowerment and health promotion, youth empowerment programs for tobacco prevention and control globally from books and electronic databases from the Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) library in the publication period 2000–2020. Relevant literature was selected and critically reviewed which reflected the role empowerment in health promotion, stage of community empowerment strategy as described by Laverack and youth empowerment concept in tobacco control as described by Holden.

Documents that specifically discuss empowerment programs for smoking prevention and control are still limited. The findings document that youth empowerment in tobacco control do not fully integrate the theory empowerment as described by Laverack and Holden. This paper provides information about the stages of youth empowerment, and a conceptual framework of youth empowerment for the prevention and control of smoking behavior. Youth empowerment is done through the direct involvement of youth in programs starting from program design, planning, implementation and evaluation. Indicators of the success of the empowerment process are reflected in the increase in the empowerment domain. Meanwhile, the output of empowerment can be seen from the individual- or group-level changes.

This paper proposes a model of youth empowerment for the prevention and control of smoking behavior among youths based on theory and experience in the field.