A survey of local health personnel and decision makers concerning the North Karelia project: a community program for control of cardiovascular diseases

Macro-Intervention to Support Health Behavior: Some Theoretical Perspectives and Practical Reflections

Large-scale, integrated programs—as distinct from multiple and widespread replications of small-scale programs—require for their planning, implementation and evaluation a qualitatively different set of concepts, methods, and procedures. They are not merely the sum of the parts making up numerous applications of the same health education messages and objectives in various organizations or communities. This review of theory, research and the experience of national and community-based studies in mass media and community development for health, family planning and cardiovascular risk reduction identifies some distinctions between micro- and macrointerventions, as well as between the uses of mass media in commercial marketing and those in health promotion.

Community interventions for reducing smoking among adults

BACKGROUND

Since smoking behaviour is determined by social context, the best way to reduce the prevalence of smoking may be to use community-wide programmes which use multiple channels to provide reinforcement, support and norms for not smoking.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the effectiveness of community interventions for reducing the prevalence of smoking.

SEARCH STRATEGY

We searched the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group specialised register, MEDLINE (1966-August 2001) and EMBASE (1980-August 2001) and reference lists of articles.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Controlled trials of community interventions for reducing smoking prevalence in adult smokers. The primary outcome was smoking behaviour.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Data were extracted by one person and checked by a second.

MAIN RESULTS

Thirty two studies were included, of which seventeen included only one intervention and one comparison community. Only four studies used random assignment of communities to either the intervention or comparison group. The population size of the communities ranged from a few thousand to over 100,000 people. Change in smoking prevalence was measured using cross-sectional follow-up data in 27 studies. The estimated net decline ranged from -1.0% to 3.0% for men and women combined (10 studies). For women, the decline ranged from -0.2% to + 3.5% per year (n=11), and for men the decline ranged from -0.4% to +1.6% per year (n=12). Cigarette consumption and quit rates were only reported in a small number of studies. The two most rigorous studies showed limited evidence of an effect on prevalence. In the US COMMIT study there was no differential decline in prevalence between intervention and control communities, and there was no significant difference in the quit rates of heavier smokers who were the target intervention group. In the Australian CART study there was a significantly greater quit rate for men but not women.

REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS

The failure of the largest and best conducted studies to detect an effect on prevalence of smoking is disappointing. A community approach will remain an important part of health promotion activities, but designers of future programmes will need to take account of this limited effect in determining the scale of projects and the resources devoted to them.

Sex differences in awareness and control of hypertension in France

OBJECTIVE

To assess the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension for men and women living in three French regions.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional population survey.

SETTING

Subjects in the World Health Organization Monitoring Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease population surveys of Bas-Rhin, the urban community of Lille and Haute-Garonne, France.

SUBJECTS

We studied 1924 men and 1874 women aged 35-64 years.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Hypertension was defined as a systolic blood pressure > or = 160 mmHg, a diastolic blood pressure > or = 95 mmHg, being administered antihypertensive drug treatment or any combination of the foregoing. Treated hypertensive subjects were considered controlled if their systolic blood pressure was < 160 mmHg and their diastolic blood pressure was < 95 mmHg.

RESULTS

The prevalence of hypertension was 40.2, 43.8 and 27.7% among men in Lille, Bas-Rhin and Haute-Garonne, respectively. For women, the corresponding values were 31.5, 33.8 and 18.9%. Among hypertensive men, 51.8% were aware of their condition, 30.0% were being administered drug treatment and 9.2% were controlled; the respective values for hypertensive women were 69.8, 51.2 and 25.3% (P < 0.001). Awareness of hypertension was associated with antihypertensive treatment more commonly in Haute-Garonne (81.0% for men and 84.7% for women). The percentages of treated subjects in whom adequate control of the blood pressure had been achieved were only 30.7% for men and 49.4% for women.

CONCLUSION

Women have a better awareness of hypertension than do men and their hypertension is controlled better but the low rate of control for both sexes calls for further improvements.

Relative impact of targeted versus populationwide cholesterol interventions on the incidence of coronary heart disease. Projections of the Coronary Heart Disease Policy Model

We used the Coronary Heart Disease Policy Model, a state-transition computer simulation, to assess the absolute and relative effects of two different national cholesterol interventions: a targeted program to identify and treat all individuals with elevated serum cholesterol levels (greater than or equal to 250 mg/dl) versus a populationwide program to reduce everyone's serum cholesterol level. Based on the assumptions inherent in our model, which uses the Framingham Heart Study coefficients, we estimate the targeted program would reduce projected coronary heart disease absolute incidence by 8-10% in men ages 35-54 years and by 1-4% in men ages 55-74 years. Our model suggests that similar reductions in coronary heart disease incidence could be achieved by a 10 mg/dl populationwide reduction in serum cholesterol levels. In women, the targeted program would yield greater relative and absolute benefits and would be equivalent to a approximately 23 mg/dl populationwide reduction in serum cholesterol. We conclude that it would be inadvisable to rely solely on targeted cholesterol reduction programs to reduce national coronary heart disease.

Measuring community change in disease prevention and health promotion

This report describes the use of the Community Resource Inventory to measure change in community health activities. The inventory consists of a survey of all organizations within a geographical area that might be mobilized for risk factor reduction. The inventory was utilized prior to, and again 3 years after, implementation of a health promotion campaign in a rural county and in a matched reference county. It revealed an increase in health promotion activities in key community institutions in the experimental county during a period when these activities were declining in the reference county. The Community Resource Inventory is a promising method of measuring community change and can be useful in monitoring the progress of programs in which there is a long period of latency between program initiation and measurement of outcomes, such as reduction in cardiovascular mortality.

Message dissemination for a community-based cardiovascular disease prevention programme (the North Karelia Project)

The North Karelia Project was a community-based pilot programme in an Eastern Finnish community of 180,000 adults. During the intervention period from 1972 to 1977, the project successfully demonstrated that changing risk factors at the community level was feasible and could result in a significant reduction in disease rates. The North Karelia Project used mass media for dissemination of the message, but relied on face-to-face contact to persuade people to adopt the new lifestyles. Training seminars for professionals were a key programme component. On average, one seminar was conducted every two and a half weeks. Total project costs were only one per cent of the total health services costs for the county during the project. These findings suggest that community programmes can improve both subjective and objective cardiovascular health, and that the strategy of integrating funding into the project recruitment and commitment process is appropriate and may even be necessary for a successful community based heart disease prevention programme.

Combination therapy in hypertension. A population-based study in eastern Finland

In a cross-sectional study, antihypertensive drug treatment was studied in a representative population sample of people aged 30-64 years, using a combination of postal survey, personal interview, clinical assessment and drug prescriptions. 11% of the men and 16% of the women were currently taking antihypertensives; 54% of patients used one, 38% used two, and 8% used three or more preparations. Men used slightly more drugs than women. Diuretics were used by 62% and betablockers by 49% of the sample population. Fixed combinations of thiazides and potassium-sparing agents formed 70% of all diuretic preparations used. Only 12% of the patients used fixed antihypertensive combinations, of which over half were diuretic-reserpine-vasodilator combinations; women and older patients used them most often. The most common freely combined preparations were diuretics and betablockers, which formed almost half of all two-drug combinations, and were also present in 70% of all triple combinations. Adequate control of blood pressure (DBP less than 100 mmHg) was achieved by slightly under 50% of the patients, the BP of women being more adequately controlled than that of men. Differences in BP control were found between the different drugs and combinations. Antihypertensive combination therapy is important in successful treatment, but we still cannot be sure whether fixed combination preparations or, as in this study, free combinations of marketed preparations are better alternatives for treatment.