Healthy Living Centres – do they work?
And if they do, how and why do they work?
Main content
A new research project aims to study whether programmes from Healthy Living Centres (HLCs) can develop motivation and perceived quality-of-life in participants and lead to measurable outcomes in terms of health behaviour and health. The project will begin in March 2014 and is led by Professor Eivind Meland from the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care. The project is entitled: “Promoting health in Healthy Living Centres – does it work, how does it work and why?”
Does Healthy Living training affect different groups differently?
The project will examine the HLC programme that is being offered in a number of Norwegian communities in collaboration with “Frisklivssentralen”, a Healthy Living initiative with nodes in many Norwegian communities. It will use “Intervention mapping” to explore whether the process of establishing and participating in healthy living activities can yield measurable outcomes in terms of health behaviour and health. The research aims to study the possibility for making such HLC interventions accessible for all social and socioeconomic groups, as well as whether different groups have different results in terms of sticking with the HLC programme and being able to sustain lifestyle changes.
Is Healthy Living training sustainable?
In addition, the project will consider “best-practice”, the community’s needs and resources, and ways to make HLC activities sustainable over time. They will study short-term (6 months) effects and longer-term (2 years) effects as compared to controls.
The project involves collaboration between the University of Bergen (UiB) and the University of Agder (UiA) working together with “Frisklivssentralen” (Healthy Living Centres). From UiB it involves Professor Eivind Meland, the project leader, as well as Post-doc Eirik Abildsnes, PhD student Gro Samdal and Associate Professor Thomas Mildestvedt. Associate Professor Tonje Stea from UiA will also be involved in the project.
Link to Bergen Commune’s HLC programme (in Norwegian)
Link to Frisklivssentralen (in Norwegian)
