Background
The major public health diseases have multiple interacting causes and these causes accumulate increasingly in people with little or no formal education. It is well documented that there exists social inequality in health, which affects people with little or no education, low income and people who are unemployed or receives social security disproportionally. While there is a substantial amount of knowledge and research in the health conditions and habits of the general public, only limited knowledge exist on the health of socially disadvantaged citizens. The intention of the FELIS project is to create a deeper understanding of the complexity around these problems and to generate more evidence based knowledge in this area, which seems to be much needed both from a national and international perspective. The starting point of this project is an extensive empirical and multidimensional study of everyday life and health habits of the residents of the neighbourhoods in the municipality of Fredericia (2008-2011).
Pupose
The purpose of the FELIS-project is to investigate and evaluate which types of local, social and health related interventions that may eventually help reduce social inequality in health. The main objectives of the project are:
- In the long term to contribute to the reduction of social inequality in residential areas by applying systematic evidence-based methods that take into account the local structure and context.
- Development of local health promotion planning based of local contextualized analyses in close collaboration with researchers from SDU/Health Promotion in Esbjerg.
- To support and promote the development of a good and meaningful life and the health of the residents in the communities.
- To help increase residents’ participation and engagement in the community and its development.
- To apply the developed methods, experiences and knowledge in developing other residential areas and communities.
Target group
The target group of the FELIS-project includes residents in deprived communities. At the moment the target group contains residents of Korskærparken in the Municipality of Fredericia as well as residents in several areas of the Municipality of Esbjerg, including Kvaglund.
Timeline
The FELIS project was initiated in 2008 and is expected to be ended in 2013.