The SoL project aims to develop healthy communities on the Danish island of Bornholm through integrated health promotion interventions targeting families with young children. The project partners with local organizations across settings like supermarkets, schools, and media. Early results show the project has established partnerships and intervention activities, and developed an evaluation plan using a realistic methodology. The goal is to understand how to create and sustain healthier communities through participatory action research and multi-setting integration with a focus on food and exercise.

1. Providing public health nutrition
through integrated interventions in
everyday life settings –
insights from SoL-Bornholm project
the 7th Nordic Health Promotion Research Conference in Vestfold, Norway, June 17-19
Mikkelsen, BE. AAU-MENU
& the SoL team
Professor, PhD, Research coordinator, bemi@plan.aau.dk
Researchgroup: Meal Science & Public Health Nutrition (WWW.MENU.AAU.DK)
There is a growing interest and belief in the potentials of interventions in everyday life settings such as kindergarten, schools, institutions and workplaces. Such settings are increasingly taking on public health responsibilities to address the
issue of education for health and life skills as part of their public or corporate social responsibility. This paper presents insights form Project SoL at the isle of Bornholm. It aims to develop healthy communities by focusing on families with
children and their shopping, eating and exercise habits living on the Danish island of Bornholm. The project is a partnership between different organizations on Bornholm that includes representatives from civil society, community-based
associations, businesses and the public administration. The SoL project is being implemented in the three neighborhoods of Allinge, Hasle and Nexø through an integrated approach where promotion of health eating and non-sedentary
behavior is coordinated across supermarket, media, school and kindergarten setting. The primary target group is families with children aged 3-8 years-old. The families are the key to the development and execution of a range of specific
health promotion activities. The project started in autumn 2011 and is running over four years. The activities of Project SoL is based on three areas that together form a super setting: child care centers/kindergarten, supermarkets and media.
Each of the sites is engaged with a number of predetermined health promotion activities and participant-driven activities which will be modified and fine-tuned as the project progresses. Project SoL is expected to affect Bornholm families'
knowledge, attitudes and behaviors around healthy lifestyles with an emphasis on food and exercise. The project aims to strengthen the families' actions and competencies towards practicing a ‘healthy lifestyle’ and increase social
community involvement. All these factors are expected to pave the way for better well-being and quality of life for the families and children. Project activities will be monitored and evaluated on an on-going basis to provide evidence of how
far these aims are being met. This includes recording sedentary, buying and eating behavior. This paper presents the formative research of the project. It lay out the protocol for the program evaluation and reflects on how the local
community seems to be shaping a new form of local governance. It reports on perspectives and limitations in engaging citizens, media, front workers and politicians in participatory approaches. It finally discusses the type of interventions
including new approaches to behavioral change such as choice architectures

3. Expected outcomes
• Increase
• 15 % retail sale of F&V and whole grain compared to
control
• 25 % intake of F&V and whole grain among 220
intervention families compared to control
• Significant difference in knowledge (cultural capital) and
attitude among intervention families compared to control
• Decrease
• 15 % of intake of candy and soft drinks compared to control
• TV viewing of ½ hour among children in intervention
families

4. SoL participation
professional Kick Off
7 marts 2012

5. Research consortium &
project ownership
Local community,
municipality & partnership
ownership
Time
Action
Model for transfer of ownership
sustainability of intervention*
* O’Loughlin, 1989

6. SoL high-impact intervention sites

7. 201320122011 2014
CASE
CONTROL
Baseline Follow Up

8. SoL supersettings
http://www.tv2bornholm.
dk/programmer/bare-lidt-
sundere.aspx?videoID=32
365&vidLoc=NewDB

9. RQ
How can healthier local
community be created and
sustained based on a
participatory action research
approach in a local community
and integration accross settings
with emphasis on food & eating

10. Example of intervention:
Hands on Food Activity, HOFA
• Taste
education
• Farm2School
links
• Roof gardens
• Edible school
gardens
• Cooking classes
• School gardens

11. Taste education at
Paradisbakken
, Supertaster Day 3

13. Results
• First baseline results captured
• A sustainable alliance built
• A brand created and reinforced
• Methodology/protocol ready, tested &
validated
• Local action groups (LAGs) created
201320122011 2014
CASE
CONTROL
Baseline Follow Up

14. Evaluation
• Develop a program theory
• Based on realistic evaluation
• Combine with srummative
evaluation
• Baseline/follow up & case control

15. Outline of a SoL programme theory

16. Realistic evaluation
• Roots in implementation science
• Acknowledges positivism as well as relativism (Dahler-Larsen,
2001).
• Assumptions
– Intervention takes place in open social systems
– Interventions are volatile
– External validity and transferability depends on context.
– Complex relationships between
• enviromental factors
• individuals that interventions are targetting
• mediators/intermediaries facilitating the interventions

17. Conclusions
• Health has become a media darling
• Health has become a CSR topic
• Health needs to be dealt with in new non public
driven ways (meta public governance)
• Parnerships are selfcontained
• Partnerships take time
• Participation too
• Intervention intensity is key
• Agency has been embedded in LAG’s

18. Thank you/see you
• Meet us may 2014 at
• The SoL team
• Charlotte Glümer
• Ulla Toft
• Lise L Johansen
• Bjarne Bruun Jensen
• Paul Bloch
• Laura T Clausen
• Kjeld Poulsen
• Helene C Reinbach
• Tine B Andersen
• Lise
• Susanne Carlsen
Read more or subscribe to newsletter at www.sol-bornholm.dk