2023 · Study · English

Relating community capacity to the adoption of an evidence-based prevention strategy: a community-level analysis

Birgel, V., Walter, U., & Röding, D.

Birgel, V., Walter, U., & Röding, D. (2023). Relating community capacity to the adoption of an evidence-based prevention strategy: a community-level analysis. Journal of Public Health, 33(8), 1755–1764. doi.org/10.1007/s10389-023-02159-x

Summary

Community-level analysis in the Journal of Public Health from the German CTC evaluation, testing whether community capacity explains why some municipalities adopt an evidence-based prevention strategy and others do not. Data are a secondary analysis of 182 key-informant interviews in 38 communities; structural validity, internal consistency and inter-rater agreement supported measuring ten capacity domains from such reports. In logistic regressions, adoption was associated with sense of community (OR 6.62), prevention collaboration (OR 26.05), cross-sector collaboration (OR 10.49), community power (OR 19.29) and community structure (OR 4.79); available leadership also predicted adoption (OR 5.21). A 2025 correction (J Public Health 33:1765) fixed two confidence intervals in Table 3 – community power 1.74–28.12, prevention collaboration 5.98–33.39 – whose upper bounds had been printed below the point estimates; the corrected intervals are wider, the odds ratios and conclusions unchanged. Small sample and wide intervals, but direct European evidence on what CTC’s capacity-building phase should aim at.