Challenge
In order to identify health strengths and health challenges of Cambrils, the City Council’s Department of Health asks for the development of the health status diagnosis of Cambrils.
The understanding of what health means has evolved over the centuries and, nowadays, the definition includes the dimensions of physical, mental and social wellbeing, thus moving away from the idea of absence of disease. This change means that multiple factors that go beyond biological factors, such as economic, social, cultural, environmental or political factors, come into play. Thus, the circumstances in which people live condition their health and are known as “social determinants of health.” In this way, people have more or less chance of accessing a good state of health based on the social determinants of health that characterize their vital circumstances (age, gender, origin, etc.).
The goal of this analysis is to know the reality of Cambrils in order to develop a Local Health Action Plan that allows intervention on health determinants and provide resources according to the needs to ensure equity in health.
Answer
In order to obtain a thorough knowledge of the different areas related to health and their social determinants, an overview of the state of health and its determinants has been developed: a Health Profile. This has been possible thanks to an elaboration process focused on citizen participation (key agents, non-associated citizenship and local entities) and intersectoral work, in which the different areas of the City Council of Cambrils and health professionals of the municipality have collaborated . Specifically, the diagnosis has been made through the collection of primary and secondary data through the combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies (documentary analysis, health surveys, interviews and discussion groups). The results of this document will allow us to work on the production of the Health Action Plan, in order to respond to the identified needs and to value the actions that are already being developed in Cambrils and that have been found to work.
