The Fountain of Health: effective health promotion knowledge transfer in individual primary care and group community-based formats

ABSTRACTBackground:The Fountain of Health (FoH) initiative is a knowledge transfer (KT) project on the science of brain health and resilience promotion, in alignment with positive psychiatry.

Objectives: Assess the effectiveness of FoH KT delivered in individual and group-based formats.

Design: Pre- and post-intervention quality assurance survey of FoH KT.

Setting: Interventions occurred in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Participants: Adults over age 50 years without pre-existing dementia were targeted. A total of 92 participants received FoH KT in individualized (n = 41) and group-based (n = 51) formats.

Intervention: FoH KT (e.g. sharing evidence, lifestyle coaching, and goal setting) using a range of KT supports (e.g. FoH website, paper materials) was delivered to (1) individual patients by primary care clinicians and (2) community-based groups by lay leaders.

Measurements: The main outcome measure was participant pre- and post-quality assurance self-reports.

Results: Improvements were found in participant awareness of FoH, knowledge of evidence-based mental health promotion initiatives, and in application of this information in daily life in both individual and group-based settings. Improvements in participant knowledge about epigenetic factors that impact health and confidence with health behavior goal setting were reported in both contexts. Changes in self-perceptions of aging scores reached significance in the group intervention.

Conclusions: FoH KT produced short-term positive self-reported changes in participants in both individual and group formats. Larger control studies with long-term follow up are needed to better assess effects of both individual and group formats of FoH KT and longer term impacts on health behaviors and outcomes.