Social Attitude towards Health Participation

Abstract

Background: The community health participation is an important issue for all health systems based on a Primary Health Care, which emphasizes prevention and promotion, as a complement to assistance. In this survey, the social attitude towards health participation is studied, taking into account the different research paradigms on Social Sciences, the models of health behaviours, the meaning of participation and the meaning of the own attitudes. Methods: AL&ert scale of 18 items, which amstitutes a part of a general health survey of 128 variable is elaborated and validated. It is complemented with a personali terview to 1371 persons in a randon sample from four health areas. Results: The data obtained show that there are neither statistical significant differences among areas in relation with having or not a Health Council, nor between men and women. The attitudes towards participation are more favourable among young people, bachelors and persons from a high socioeconomic status, hig degree studies, white collar proffesions, and the persons gomg to the doctor with the lowest frequency, show a positive tendendy. The factorial analysis identifies three dimensions: a) Self-care, b) political and c) community health agent. The discriminant analysis shows that variables (age, civil, status, socioeconomic level, studies...) classify correctly 74% of cases. Conclusions: The personal profile, showing a health participative attitude, is consistent, in most variables, with that publised by previous reports.