1. Understanding Risk and Protective Factors: Their Use in Selecting Potential Targets and Promising Strategies for Interventions

2. Risk and protective factors
Aspects of a person or their environment that make it more or less likely they will experience a particular outcome.

3. Categories of risk and protective factors
Personal
Knowledge and skill
Experience and history
Biology/genetics
Environmental
Support and services
Access, barriers, and opportunities
Consequences of efforts
Policies and living conditions

4. Knowledge and skill
Knowledge
Beliefs
Skill
Education and Training

5. Experience and History
Cultural norms and religious practices.

6. Biology and Genetics Type and degree of existing health
Cognitive, mental, or physical ability
Chronic illness
Gender and age
Genetic predisposition

7. Support and services
Availability of continuity of social support and ties.
Availability of appropriate services.
Availability of resources.

8. Access, barriers, and opportunity
Physical access and barriers.
Communication access and barriers.
Competing requirements for participation.

9. Consequences and effects
Incentives and disincentives.
Time costs and delays.

10. Policies and living conditions
Financial barriers and resources
Living conditions and hazards
Poverty and social status

11. General principles about risk and protective factors
Many factors are related to multiple community outcomes.
Not all risk and protective factors are created equal.
The more risk factors a person has, the greater the likelihood they will have a given health problem.

12. When should you use risk and protective factors
The sooner, the better!

13. How do you identify risk and protective factors and use them to select the targets and strategies for your intervention?
Review information about candidate factors.
Gather available data
Develop your own information
The "But why?" technique
Conduct focus groups
Develop and distribute surveys
Select risk and protective factors to be addressed.
Does it strongly influence the issue?
Can it be easily changed?
What is the appropriate mix of risk and protective factors?
Use information about who is affected by multiple risk factors to help select your "targets of change."
Use information about the types of risk and protective factors to select promising strategies for the comprehensive intervention.