Conceptualizing the Supersetting approach and presenting Tingbjerg Changing Diabetes

BACKGROUND: Health and ill health are created in the settings where people live. Thus, health inequity is strongly linked to the social, cultural, and environmental contexts of people's everyday lives. In disadvantaged neighbourhoods, residents generally have poorer health than the general population, especially when it comes to type 2 diabetes (T2D) and mental illnesses. Meanwhile, studies show positive health outcomes of multilevel, multicomponent participatory community interventions pointing towards the need for increased health promotion and prevention of T2D in local communities. CONCEPTUALISATION: This session presents the Supersetting, an intervention strategy for multilevel, multicomponent community interventions. The Supersetting strives to attain synergistic effects from coordinated actions carried out across multiple settings. Stakeholder participation is a core element of a Supersetting. Consequently, a Supersetting initiative must work with a comprehensive organisation structure for dialogue, decision-making, coordination and action between citizens, civil society organisations, public authorities and their institutions, private sector corporations, and researchers. Instead of predefined and meticulously planned actions, the Supersetting approach builds on five overarching principles guiding the development and implementation of interventions. These are 1) integration, 2) participation, 3) empowerment, 4) context-sensitivity and 5) knowledge. CASE: The Supersetting has mainly been implemented in the long-term strategic health promotion imitative Tingbjerg Changing Diabetes (TCD), which aims to create well-being and promote good, healthy lives while preventing T2D in the disadvantaged neighbourhood of Tingbjerg, Denmark. Data on T2D from national health registers will be presented. CONCLUSIONS: The Supersetting approach is a relevant, context sensitive conceptual framework for developing initiatives for sustainable impact in community health promotion.