A multidimensional tool to measure quality of social participation in health

Abstract

Health strategies, programs and activities have historically been the result of institutional practices with a limited participatory component. Traditionally, institutional action is mainly determined by the criteria of the political actors and, in the best of cases, by the criteria of healthcare professionals. New forms of governance for health equity advocate for the inclusion of the community in the design of strategies, programmes and activities in health. For this reason, a growing concern in the field of participation in health is the measurement of the participatory quality of new designs of institutional practices. This article aims to develop an operational proposal to design, measure or describe the scope in participatory terms of the health planning processes. The proposal elaborates six dimensions for the measurement and assessment of participatory process: inclusivity, information flow, deliberative quality, decision making, institutional commitment and community empowerment.