Community capacity as means to improved health practices and an end in itself: evidence from a multi-stage study
Underwood, C.; Boulay, M.; Snetro-Plewman, G.; Macwan'gi, M.; Vijayaraghavan, J.; Namfukwe, M.; Marsh, D.
International Quarterly of Community Health Education 33(2): 105-127
2012
ISSN/ISBN: 0272-684X PMID: 23661414 DOI: 10.2190/iq.33.2.bDocument Number: 574127
This three-phase study characterized, validated, and applied community capacity domains in a health communication project evaluation in Zambia. Phase I explored community capacity domains from community members' perspectives (16 focus groups, 14 in-depth interviews, 4 sites. These were validated in Phase II with 720 randomly selected adults. The validated domains were incorporated into a program evaluation survey (2,462 adult women, 2,354 adult men; October 2009). The results indicated that the intervention had direct effects on community capacity; enhanced capacity was then associated with having taken community action for health. Finally, community capacity mediated by community action and controlling for confounders, had a significant effect on women's contraceptive use, children's bed net use, and HIV testing. The results indicate that building community capacity served as a means to an end-improved health behaviors and reported collective action for health-and an end-in-itself, both of which are essential to overall wellbeing.