VIRTUS UNITA SALUBRIUS. HOW AND WHERE “QUALITY OF LIFE” AND “HEALTH PROMOTION” ARE UNITED AND APPLIED AT A COMMUNITY LEVEL, Desislava Vankova
ABSTRACT: Background: In politics “Virtus Unita Fortior” (Virtue “united” is stronger). Regarding healthcare, this Latin sentence is absolutely relevant. The higher the levels of trust in institutions, the stronger the sense of community, the more developed social capital (SC) is, the higher levels of quality of life are registered. The most sustainable strategy for improving the health-related quality (HrQoL) is health promotion. Nationally, all of these was applied in one population study with 1050 participants, volunteers from the city of Burgas. The aim was to study HrQoL through a mixed-methods design with a standardised instrument and to analyze the impact of socio-economic (focusing SC), demographic and some behavioral determinants on HrQoL.
Overall results and conclusion: The results were reported in a series of publications indexed in web of science and Scopus. SC proved to be important determinant which improves individual and population health. The network-based approach to SC was the key in the presented study. Today, the development of SC is not only imbedded in the municipality health policy documents but also implemented in the region of Burgas. HrQoL topics and its determinants are always relevant. However, the dynamic public health challenges, such as COVID-19 crisis show that the development of SC is not always sufficient for the HrQoL improvement. Sustainable behavioral change through socially responsible personal decisions remains of paramount importance.
Keywords: health-related quality of life; social capital; health promotion; Burgas, Bulgaria
