Stakeholder Understanding and Participation in Health Promotion Planning: Evidence from Prieto Diaz, Sorsogon, Philippines

This study assessed stakeholder understanding and participation in health promotion planning in Prieto Diaz, Sorsogon, Philippines, and developed a participatory planning framework for strengthening local health promotion initiatives. Using a descriptive-correlational design, the study examined the demographic profile of 150 stakeholders and measured their level of understanding of participatory planning across four dimensions: conceptual, process, application, and analytical understanding. Data were gathered through a structured survey questionnaire and analyzed using frequency, percentage, weighted mean, and statistical tests of relationship. Findings showed that the respondents were mostly female, married, government-employed, and had served for one to ten years. Stakeholders demonstrated strong understanding of participatory planning, with all four dimensions interpreted as Strongly Agree: conceptual understanding, process understanding, application understanding, and analytical understanding. Results also showed no significant relationship between demographic profile and level of understanding, indicating that stakeholder understanding was generally consistent across age, sex, civil status, occupation, length of service, educational attainment, and stakeholder membership. Based on the findings, a participatory planning framework was proposed, emphasizing stakeholder-centered conceptualization, collaborative planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, learning, and continuous improvement. The study highlights the importance of inclusive, evidence-based, and community-responsive approaches in strengthening local health promotion governance.