Determining the conditions necessary for health promotion project sustainability across different project locations, settings and populations

This study investigated the extent that equity-focused health promotion projects across different contexts could build the conditions necessary for sustaining the delivery and impact of their strategies. A qualitative case study design explored the sustainability of projects through interviews, project visits and document collection. A Health Promotion Sustainability Continuum was developed and the study found that developing equity-focused health promotion projects that can survive for the long-term is hard but not impossible. The majority of projects achieved modest progress in building sustainability for their strategies. Sustainability was best achieved by working to build projects into both community and organisational structures.