Abstract
This commentary describes the contribution of the 1985 Canadian National Health Promotion Survey to the development of public health research and policy-making in Canada and argues that on the basis of that contribution, it should be considered to be a public health research milestone. In terms of research, among its contributions which subsequently have been adopted in other survey studies were: going beyond risk factors to operationalize concepts implicit in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion; empowering users to participate in knowledge translation, sharing and transfer; ensuring sufficient sample sizes for each jurisdiction to be able to confidently generalize to its population; establishing a model as well as questions for subsequent health surveys; encouraging widespread use of data through making them available early; and developing and using an explicit social marketing strategy to reach target audiences, including the general public. With regard to policy-making, among its contributions which have been adopted were: using survey data to develop and enhance healthy public policy initiatives; encouraging researchers to work with policy-makers in developing policies; using survey data to contribute to the evaluation of public health initiatives; engaging policy-makers in the development of surveys; and encouraging the use of survey data for advocacy.
Résumé
Ce commentaire porte sur la contribution de l’Enquête sur la promotion de la santé (EPS), menée au Canada en 1985, au développement de la recherche en santé publique et à la formulation des politiques au Canada et fait valoir que sur la base de cette contribution, l’EPS doit être considérée comme un jalon de la recherche en santé publique. Pour ce qui est de la recherche, certaines de ses approches ont ultérieurement été adoptées dans d’autres enquêtes: l’EPS a vu au-delà des facteurs de risque en opérationnalisant des notions implicites de la Charte d’Ottawa pour la promotion de la santé; elle a habilité les utilisateurs à participer à l’application, au partage et au transfert des connaissances; fait en sorte que les échantillons soient suffisamment gros pour que chaque administration puisse avec assurance en généraliser les données à l’ensemble de sa population; établi le modèle et les questions des futures enquêtes sur la santé; encouragé l’utilisation généralisée des données en les diffusant rapidement; et élaboré et utilisé une stratégie explicite de marketing social pour joindre les publics cibles, y compris le grand public. Certaines des approches de l’EPS en matière de formulation des politiques ont aussi été adoptées: l’EPS a utilisé des données d’enquête pour élaborer et améliorer des initiatives visant à créer des politiques publiques saines; encouragé les chercheurs à collaborer avec les responsables des politiques; contribué des données d’enquête à l’évaluation d’initiatives de santé publique; impliqué les responsables des politiques dans l’élaboration d’enquêtes; et encouragé l’utilisation des données d’enquête à des fins d’action sociale.
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Disclaimer: The views of the authors do not necessarily represent the views of the organizations with which they are currently or were affiliated when the survey was developed and implemented.
At the time that the Health Promotion Survey was being developed, Dr. Rootman was Chief of Health Promotion Studies for the Health Promotion Directorate of Health and Welfare Canada and he directed the development and implementation of the 1985 Survey.
At the time that the 1985 survey was implemented, Mr. Warren was the Manager of the survey and was responsible for analysis and dissemination of the findings. At the time of the 1990 survey, he was the Chief of Health Promotion Studies and directed the survey development and implementation.
At the time of the 1985 survey, Mr. Catlin was Project Manager, Special Surveys at Statistics Canada and managed the survey implementation. At the time of the 1990 survey, he was Assistant Director, Special Surveys at Statistics Canada and oversaw the survey implementation.
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Rootman, I., Warren, R. & Catlin, G. Canada’s Health Promotion Survey as a Milestone in Public Health Research. Can J Public Health 101, 436–438 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03403958
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03403958