joint strategic needs assessment foundation profile - JSNA

Interative Hull Atlas: www.hullpublichealth.org/Pages/hull_atlas.htm More information: www.jsnaonline.org and www.hullpublichealth.org
Hull has a strong history of community-led activity, particularly in wards with high levels
of deprivation. Community groups of varying sizes and types meet in church halls,
community centres and on sports fields for a variety of physical activities, e.g. to dance,
keep fit and play team games. The aim of the survey was to discover whether, and to
what extent, participation in community groups can impact on a range of health
indicators.
Following the success of the pilot, a more lengthy evaluation was undertaken in the form
of the Community Physical Activity Survey. There were four rounds of data collection at
six-monthly periods across a range of such community groups. The questionnaire
included questions on exercise, mobility, diet, the Mental Health Index (MHI), changes
over the last six months, as well as information about the community group itself. The
key outcome measures were the levels of exercise undertaken and mental health as
measured by the MHI.
A total of 621 questionnaires were completed in a total of four rounds from 360 different
individuals, with just under a half of these participants participating in two or more
rounds. The majority of the participants were women aged over 55 years.
Table 128 gives the details of the analyses for the physical activity frequency and
mental health index for those individuals who completed at least two rounds of the
survey. The first column details the variable or criteria being considered, the next four
columns gives the number of people who participated and answered the questions in
two different rounds and their responses in their first round relative to their responses in
their last round. For instance, 27 participants stated that they undertook physical activity
on five or more occasions during the week in their first round surveyed but did not
participate in this frequency of exercise when asked in their last survey round. The next
two columns (6 th and 7 th columns) give the percentage fulfilling the criteria for their first
round and their last round. The next column gives the difference in these percentages
with a 95% confidence interval (see section 12.5 on page 775 for more explanation). If
the 95% confidence interval includes the value of zero, it implies there is no statistically
significant difference in the two percentages between the first round and the last round.
A p-value is also given which is the result of a statistical test (McNemar‟s test for paired
percentages) undertaken to compare the differences (see section 12.4 on page 774 for
more explanation).
It was found that percentage of survey responders who exercised using the three
measures of exercise fell slightly between their first and last survey round 41 . Between
the first and last rounds, the mental health index improved. The mental health index
ranges from zero denoting the worst mental health to 100 denoting the best mental
health. The differences in the MHI were not statistically significant (although the
41 As frequency of exercising was relatively high, one may expect this to decrease (a statistical
phenomenon referred to as „regression to the mean‟). If exercising to the most frequent category
response in their first round, it is impossible to exercise more frequently in later survey rounds, and any
change must be a reduction in the frequency. This also occurs at the other extreme, people exercising at
the least frequent category response in their first round, can only exercise at that same frequency level or
at a higher frequency level in the last round (not lower as there is no such response on the questionnaire).
Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Foundation Profile – Hull Health Profile: Release 3. March 2011. 320