Participatory Action Research as a Driver for Health Promotion and Prevention: A Co-creation Process Between Professionals and Citizens in a Deprived Neighbourhood in the Hague

INTRODUCTION: Ignited by the persistent health inequalities many cities and neighbourhoods, the ‘Healthy and Happy The Hague’ network in the Netherlands wanted to gain insight in how prevention and health promotion could become successful in one deprived neighbourhood, Moerwijk. METHODS: The cycle of Look-Think-Act of Participatory Action Research was used in which both citizens and professionals got involved from the start. Besides interviews, field notes were analysed, visualised and discussed in several rounds of focus groups. RESULTS: Thematic analysis yielded seven themes: Healthy Eating and Exercise, Healthy Money, Healthy Mind, Healthy Relationships, Growing up healthy, Healthy Environment and Healthy Collaboration. During sessions around combination of themes, eight initiatives were co-created by citizens and professionals together, improving the feeling of ownership and interconnectedness. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: This PAR sheds a light on the mismatch between the system world’s solutions for individuals and the living world’s needs for solutions for the collective. Findings provides a better insight into the social, political, and cultural mechanisms and processes that influence clustering and interaction of health conditions. PAR is a promising process of citizens and professionals working together is an excellent way to learn about the conditions under which people experience health inequalities, and how to combat these inequalities.