Relevance for Public Health

Developed for public health, this method examines interventions designed for implementation at the community level. Brownson & Simoes (1999) subscribe to the following criteria for determination of a community level intervention: • evidence of a common condition; • established risk factors; • sociocultural determinants; • reasonable and available interventions; • demonstrated benefits of the intervention; • public safety and community acceptance. This method could be useful for practitioners, decision-makers and policy-makers who need to evaluate program delivery, disease surveillance, or to develop policy, educate the public and/or assure competence in a public health workforce.

Description

Prevention research involves effective application that benefits the public’s health and considers not only the efficacy of an intervention itself, but also the effectiveness of applying that intervention to the population. This method evaluates the application of population-based interventions at the community level. This method addresses a gap by providing an approach to determining the impact of prevention research on public health practice. Developed exclusively for public health, this approach can be used to evaluate public health interventions related to a population of interest. The steps for this method include the examination of process measures, cost effectiveness, disease surveillance, program delivery, and public health education and training. No information was provided about the evaluation of this method.

Public health practitioners, decision-makers or policy-makers needing to apply a community-level public health intervention.

Three levels of evaluation are used to assess a community intervention: 1) Process – need to determine changes that result from the public health intervention. This could occur during the early stages of the intervention (for example, implementing a public health program) and could guide developmental decisions. For the decision-maker, process evaluation can evaluate performance, assessment of protocols and/or organizational relationships. 2) Effectiveness – need to determine of the effectiveness of the public health intervention at the community level. This can be accomplished through an impact evaluation with example measures such as changes in morbidity, mortality and quality of life. Assessment of effectiveness can also be done through high-quality research, economic evaluation, identification of potential hazards, and use of qualitative approaches. 3) Outcomes – need to establish community-level goals for public health intervention. Appropriate public health examples might include reduction in morbidity and mortality, increase in quality of life, reduction of behaviour risk factors such as smoking, and improved delivery of quality public health care.

Ross C. Brownson and Eduardo J. Simoes (source authors).

Not specified.

Dr. T. Brownson (corresponding author) Department of Community Health and Prevention Research Centre, School of Public Health, St. Louis University, 3663 Lindell Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63108-3342

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Reference

Brownson, R.C., & Simoes, E.J. (1999). Measuring the impact of prevention research on public health practice. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 16(3S), 72-79.

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