Bridging barriers to health promotion: a feasibility pilot study of the 'Promoting Aging Migrants' Capabilities study'

• Published in: Journal of evaluation in clinical practice Vol. 21; no. 4; pp. 604 - 613
• Main Authors: Lood, Qarin, Gustafsson, Susanne, Dahlin Ivanoff, Synneve
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.08.2015
• Subjects: 80 and over; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; aging; Bosnia and Herzegovina; clinical protocol; controlled study; Croatia; delivery of health care; emigrants and immigrants; Evidence-Based Practice; Feasibility Studies; feasibility study; Female; Finland; Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi; Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy; health practitioner; health program; health promotion; Health Promotion - organization & administration; Health Services Research; human; Humans; Hälso- och sjukvårdsorganisation, hälsopolitik och hälsoekonomi; implementation; Male; migrant; migration; Montenegro (republic); organization and management; outcome assessment; Outcome Assessment (Health Care); person-centred; Pilot Projects; pilot study; priority journal; Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology; questionnaire; randomized controlled trial; Surveys and Questionnaires; Sweden; Transients and Migrants; very elderly; Sweden; person-centred; delivery of health care; emigrants and immigrants; implementation
• ISSN: 1356-1294; 1365-2753; 1365-2753
• DOI: 10.1111/jep.12345

Rationale, aims and objectives Improving the possibilities for ageing persons to take control over their health is an increasingly important public health issue. Health promotion has previously been visualized to succeed with this goal, but research has primarily focused on ageing persons who are native‐born, leaving the generalizability to persons who are foreign‐born unexplored. Therefore, as part of the development of a larger health promotion initiative for ageing persons who have experienced migration, this study aimed to assess the feasibility of an adapted protocol. The specific feasibility objectives were to assess recruitment procedure, retention rates, study questionnaire administration and variability of collected data. Method Forty persons who were ≥70 years, and who had migrated from Finland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro or Serbia to Sweden were randomly allocated to a health promotion programme or a control group. The programme was linguistically adapted with regard to translated information material, bilingual health professionals and evaluators, and a person‐centred approach was applied to both programme development and provision. The data analysis was explorative and descriptive. Results The results visualized structural and linguistic barriers to recruitment and study questionnaire administration, and describe strategies for how to bridge them. Retention rates and data variability were satisfying. Conclusions Calling for iterative and pragmatic programme design, the findings describe how to move towards a more inclusive health care environment. Person‐centred and bilingual approaches with attention to the possibilities for building authentic relationships between participants and providers are emphasized, and a structured methodology for developing study questionnaires is suggested.