Health promotion at Swedish Child Health Centres

Effective health promotion intervention is understood to modify appropriate risk and protective factors. The relevance of such interventions for the C hild Health Service (CHS) was examined in three steps. In the first step, t he six most important public health problems in the target group that might be affected by CHS interventions were identified. The health problems incl ude sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), mental health problems, injuries, infections, asthma and allergic and nutritional disorders. In the second st ep, three groups of modifiable determinants were identified: risk and prote ctive factors for (i) SIDS, asthma and allergic disorders and airway tract infections (determinants: breastfeeding, environmental tobacco smoke, sleep ing non-prone and lacking indoor ventilation), (ii) injuries and (iii) ment al health problems. In the third step, evidence for the preventive measure' s ability to alleviate the effects of these risk factors was scrutinized. E vidence was found for effectiveness of CHS interventions aiming at decrease of environmental tobacco smoke. Evidence was also found for injury prevent ion provided that the intervention is a part of a wider community effort, a nd possibly also if it is very focused. Requirements for mental health prom otion are also at hand. Thus, effective health promotion via CHS interventions is feasible.