PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Perry Hystad
AU  - Richard M Carpiano
TI  - Sense of community-belonging and health-behaviour change in Canada
AID  - 10.1136/jech.2009.103556
DP  - 2012 Mar 01
TA  - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
PG  - 277--283
VI  - 66
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jech.bmj.com/content/66/3/277.short
4100  - http://jech.bmj.com/content/66/3/277.full
SO  - J Epidemiol Community Health2012 Mar 01; 66
AB  - Background Research indicates that primary prevention targeting individual behaviours should incorporate contextual factors. The objectives of this study are to examine the role of community-belonging and contextual factors on health-behaviour change in Canada, and whether the influence of community-belonging on behaviour change varies by specific types of behaviours and contextual factors.Methods Data on individual-level community-belonging, socio-demographics and self-rated health were obtained for 119 693 respondents from the 2007/2008 Canadian Community Health Survey located within 100 health regions across Canada. Contextual factors were based on health-region groupings of socio-economic determinants of health. Multilevel models were used to estimate the influence of community-belonging and health-region contextual factors on general, and specific, health-behaviour changes in the past year.Results After controlling for individual and contextual factors, community-belonging showed a positive dose–response relationship with health-behaviour change. Health-region contextual factors were only slightly associated with behaviour change; however, the influence of community-belonging on behaviour change showed significant variability based on health-region contextual factors. The influence of community-belonging also varied by specific health-behaviour changes, but for most prominent health behaviours (exercise, weight loss and improved diet) the effect was consistent.Conclusions Community-belonging was strongly related to health-behaviour change in Canada and may be an important component of population health prevention strategies. Efforts to increase community-belonging, however, need to be considered along with contextual factors.