Promoting use of nutrition and physical activity community resources among women in a family planning clinic setting.

Research increasingly supports promotion of nutrition and physical activity community resources to support individual-level health promotion interventions. However, even when such resources exist, they are often not well used. In this article, the authors describe the results of formative research regarding patient and health promotion professionals' perspectives on methods to encourage use of community resources among patients accessing family planning services at a local health department in eastern North Carolina. In March through May of 2010, the authors conducted qualitative in-depth interviews with 30 female patients, aged 18-44 years, and five local key informants. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, imported into Atlas Ti for data management, and independently double-coded. Free, easily accessible, and family-friendly resources were most appealing to participants. Key informants offered creative ideas for promoting the use of resources, such as parks and farmers' markets, and included integration of such resources into health care provider prescriptions and taking group trips to resources. Results of this study can guide similar programs attempting to promote the use of resources among hard-to-reach groups.