Health promotion and disease prevention for older adults: Intervention themes and strategies used in Quebec local community health centres and seniors' day centres

OBJECTIVE: Despite the considerable potential of disease prevention and health promotion (DPHP) among older adults, extant data suggest that this field of intervention is still underdeveloped. To shed further light on this issue, this paper presents the results of an inventory of DPHP interventions for older adults conducted in local community health centres (CLSCs) and seniors' day centres in the province of Quebec. METHODS: All CLSCs (N=147) and day centres (N=124) were invited to participate (response rates: 74% and 79%). Data were collected through telephone interviews. Interventions were coded according to type of intervention strategies and target themes. RESULTS: Awareness-raising and health education strategies emerged as the most frequently-cited type of intervention strategies, reported by 77% of CLSCs and 95% of day centres, respectively. The two themes reported by a majority of CLSCs were physical health (87%) and community issues (58%). Lifestyle habits (92%) and social issues (92%) were the two most frequently-cited themes in day centres. DISCUSSION: DPHP for older adults is substantially well developed in terms of intervention offerings in the two types of organizations under study. However, the range of available interventions requires expansion to increase the potential of DPHP programs to tackle the numerous challenges posed by the aging of the population.