Reducing violence in poor urban areas of Honduras by building community resilience through community-based interventions.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the impact of a 3 year community-based violence prevention intervention on risk of violence and social capital in two poor urban communities in Honduras in 2011-2014. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design pre and post implementation of the intervention was conducted based on data from two randomly selected samples using the same structured questionnaire in 2011 and in 2014. RESULTS: Community members had a 42 % lower risk of violence in 2014 compared to 2011. There was a positive relation between participation in the intervention and structural social capital, and participants had more than twice the likelihood of engaging in citizenship activities compared to the general population. CONCLUSIONS: The intervention contributed to decreasing violence and increasing community resilience in two urban areas in Honduras. Citizenship activities and active community participation in the violence prevention agenda rather than social trust and cohesion characteristics was affected by the intervention. This research introduces important lessons learned to future researchers aiming to retrieve very sensitive data in a similarly violent setting, and provides strong research opportunities within areas, which to this date remain undiscovered.

The Impact of Husbands' Prostate Cancer Diagnosis and Participation in a Behavioral Lifestyle Intervention on Spouses' Lives and Relationships With Their Partners.

BACKGROUND: A prostate cancer diagnosis affects the patient and his spouse. Partners of cancer patients are often the first to respond to the demands related to their husband's illness and thus are likely to be the most supportive individuals available to the patients. It is therefore important to examine how spouses react and handle their husband's prostate cancer diagnosis. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore how the prostate cancer diagnosis and the participation in their partners' behavioral lifestyle intervention program influenced the spouses' life, their relationship with their partner, and how they handle the situation. METHODS: Interviews were recorded with 8 spouses of potential low-risk prostate cancer patients on active surveillance as part of a clinical self-management lifestyle trial. RESULTS: We identified 3 phases that the spouses went through: feeling insecure about their situation, coping strategies to deal with these insecurities, and feeling reassured. CONCLUSIONS: The framework of a clinical trial should include mobilizing spousal empowerment so that they can take on an active and meaningful role in relation to their husband's disease. The observations here substantiate that the framework of active surveillance in combination with a lifestyle intervention in 1 specific prostate cancer clinical trial can mobilize spousal empowerment. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Creating well-designed clinical patient programs that actively involve the spouse appears to promote empowerment (meaning, self-efficacy, positive impact, and self-determination) in spouses. Spousal participation in clinical patient programs can give spouses relief from anxieties while recognizing them as a vital support for their husband.