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Using the Healthy Community Assessment Tool: Applicability and Adaptation in the Midwest of Western Australia

Population-based studies have associated poor living conditions with the persistent disparity in the health of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. This project assesses the applicability of the Health Community Assessment Tool and its role in improving the environment of a small community in...

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Autores principales: Tsou, Christina, Green, Charmaine, Gray, Gordon, Thompson, Sandra Claire
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6024991/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29865241
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15061159
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author Tsou, Christina
Green, Charmaine
Gray, Gordon
Thompson, Sandra Claire
author_facet Tsou, Christina
Green, Charmaine
Gray, Gordon
Thompson, Sandra Claire
author_sort Tsou, Christina
collection PubMed
description Population-based studies have associated poor living conditions with the persistent disparity in the health of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. This project assesses the applicability of the Health Community Assessment Tool and its role in improving the environment of a small community in the Midwest of Western Australia (WA). The action research cycles started with the initial reflection on the suitability of the HCAT version 2 for the local community context and whether it was fit-for-purpose. The researcher provided ‘critical companionship’, while the participants of the study were invited to be co-researchers (the Assessors) who critically examined the HCAT and assess the community. The relevant domains to the serviced town (an outer regional community) were pest control and animal management; healthy housing; food supply; community vibrancy, pride and safety; reducing environmental tobacco smoke; and promoting physical activity. The Assessors found the HCAT descriptors mostly aligned with their community context but found some of the items difficult to apply. Based on participant’s suggestions, some of the original scoring scales were reformatted. School attendance and illicit drug use were identified as a key outcome indicator for youth but were missing from the HCAT. The HCAT domains applied helped streamlining core business of agencies in the local community. The face validity of HCAT items were confirmed in this research with minor adjustments to reflect local context. Youth engagement to education is of high community concern and the development of an item would create similar interagency collaborative dialogues.
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spelling pubmed-60249912018-07-16 Using the Healthy Community Assessment Tool: Applicability and Adaptation in the Midwest of Western Australia Tsou, Christina Green, Charmaine Gray, Gordon Thompson, Sandra Claire Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Population-based studies have associated poor living conditions with the persistent disparity in the health of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. This project assesses the applicability of the Health Community Assessment Tool and its role in improving the environment of a small community in the Midwest of Western Australia (WA). The action research cycles started with the initial reflection on the suitability of the HCAT version 2 for the local community context and whether it was fit-for-purpose. The researcher provided ‘critical companionship’, while the participants of the study were invited to be co-researchers (the Assessors) who critically examined the HCAT and assess the community. The relevant domains to the serviced town (an outer regional community) were pest control and animal management; healthy housing; food supply; community vibrancy, pride and safety; reducing environmental tobacco smoke; and promoting physical activity. The Assessors found the HCAT descriptors mostly aligned with their community context but found some of the items difficult to apply. Based on participant’s suggestions, some of the original scoring scales were reformatted. School attendance and illicit drug use were identified as a key outcome indicator for youth but were missing from the HCAT. The HCAT domains applied helped streamlining core business of agencies in the local community. The face validity of HCAT items were confirmed in this research with minor adjustments to reflect local context. Youth engagement to education is of high community concern and the development of an item would create similar interagency collaborative dialogues. MDPI 2018-06-02 2018-06 /pmc/articles/PMC6024991/ /pubmed/29865241 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15061159 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Tsou, Christina
Green, Charmaine
Gray, Gordon
Thompson, Sandra Claire
Using the Healthy Community Assessment Tool: Applicability and Adaptation in the Midwest of Western Australia
title Using the Healthy Community Assessment Tool: Applicability and Adaptation in the Midwest of Western Australia
title_full Using the Healthy Community Assessment Tool: Applicability and Adaptation in the Midwest of Western Australia
title_fullStr Using the Healthy Community Assessment Tool: Applicability and Adaptation in the Midwest of Western Australia
title_full_unstemmed Using the Healthy Community Assessment Tool: Applicability and Adaptation in the Midwest of Western Australia
title_short Using the Healthy Community Assessment Tool: Applicability and Adaptation in the Midwest of Western Australia
title_sort using the healthy community assessment tool: applicability and adaptation in the midwest of western australia
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6024991/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29865241
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15061159
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