2. Planned development of culturally sensitive health promotion programs: An Intervention Mapping approach

Health promotion attempts to enhance our ability to maintain or improve quality of life by means of education and by creating conditions that are beneficial for our health and that of our social environment. In this chapter we present a framework for the design of theory- and evidence-informed health promotion programs. The framework, entitled Intervention Mapping (IM), provides guidelines and tools for the development of health promotion programs that are based on (1) needs assessments among priority populations and communities, (2) analyses of theory-informed options for corrective action, and (3) collaborative planning. IM and its application to the design of culturally sensitive health promotion programs is illustrated with an example of the development of an STI/HIV prevention program for minority women with a Dutch Caribbean background in the Netherlands.