What is the effectiveness of a health promotion intervention in enabling young people to act as change agents to reduce cardiovascular disease risk of their communities?

Study setting: District of Colombo in 24 selected Grama Niladari (GN) divisions of four randomly selected Divisional Secretariat (DS) divisions

Study design: Cluster randomized trial. A cluster is defined as adults (18 years or older) resident in the pre-identified 100 houses within the GN division with an existing club/society of young people.

The 24 GN clusters will be selected from the total 566 GN divisions using simple randomization. Allocation to intervention and control arms would be through a lottery method. Roads maps of the selected GN area would serve as the sampling frame. A location of each map would be randomly selected to serve as the starting point to select the houses to be included in the study and approximately 100 houses located on around the point will be identified.

Intervention arm

Young people (aged 15-29 years) who are members of a registered youth club/society will be trained and guided to design and deliver the interventions by the trained filed health promoter and the two doctors with post graduate qualifications in public health among the team of investigators of the study.

a) The intervention is based on the principles of health promotion.

b) Trained health promotion facilitators will visit the intervention areas and deliver the intervention in the form of a series of discussion with the young people who are members of the youth clubs/societies.

c) A minimum of 2 discussions/ month will be carried out at each cluster during the first 3 months

d) The initial 3- 4 discussions will be based on the concept of ‘health’ and ‘well-being’

e) The subsequent discussions will be on NCD risk factors (i.e. obesity, sedentary behavior, unhealthy diet, tobacco and alcohol use)

f) Each discussion will be held for a duration of 1-4 hours depending on the understanding and enthusiasm of the youth club members

g) The youth will carry out activities in their communities based on the identified determinants

The specific change activities to address the risk factors will be decided as a part of the study, based on the determinants that will be identified by the young people/communities on a priority basis.

The change activities targeting the adult residents of the identified 100 houses in the clusters of the intervention arm will be conducted by the trained young people.

Control arm
The clusters in the control arm will not receive any interventional activities.

Outcomes will be assessed by data collectors who will be blinded on their intervention/control status.

Males and females aged 30-59 years residing in the randomly selected clusters

1. Physical disabilities
2. Pregnancy