Evaluating Health Promotion: Practice And Methods

Description: Health Promotion is a relatively new discipline and there is little in the way of practical help for students and practitioners in choosing and implementing appropriate evaluation methods. As the demands for rigorous evaluation and evidence-based decision-making increase, health promotion cannot ignore the need for accurate, reliable and valid methods to carry out evaluation. This book provides clear descriptions (with plentiful practical examples) of such methods, and the problems that can arise from their implementation. Both qualitative and quantitative methods that are commonly used are described and the problems and benefits that arise with their use are explained. Experiences in the practical implementation of evaluation are explained, with examples from a variety of different social, economic and cultural contexts. The third edition of this highly successful book has been fully revised and updated to reflect the ongoing developments in the field of health promotion. It will appeal to students and practitioners in health promotion and public health (including programme managers in both the government and the voluntary sector), and donors and funding agencies who commission health promotion interventions and evaluations.

Review: For students of social sciences, this book is a must have... For occupational physicians who manage large departments that espouse health promotion and for those of us whose work includes an international perspective in developing areas this book has very significant utility. Occupational Medicine

Contents: 1: OVERVIEW; 1. Introduction; 2. Historical and policy approaches; PART 2: METHODS OF EVALUATION; 3. Evaluating according to purpose and resources: Strengthening the evidence base incrementally; 4. Evaluating interventions: Experimental study designs in health promotion; 5. Economic evaluation of health promotion interventions; 6. Using systematic reviews in health promotion; 7. Process evaluation: Understanding how and why interventions work; PART 3: EVALUATION IN PRACTICE; 8. Social marketing interventions and evaluation; 9. Evaluation of interventions to prevent intimate partner violence; 10. Evaluating environmental interventions through natural experiments; 11. E-health promotion; PART 4: PARTICIPANTS IN, AND USERS OF, EVALUATION; 12. Involving lay people in the development of NICE public health guidance; 13. Evaluating the ethics of health promotion: Understanding informed participation; 14. Feeding back evaluation results to stakeholder participants; 15. Getting findings into policy; 16. Conclusions: Providing appropriate evidence and influencing policy

Author Biography:
Margaret Thorogood was appointed Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Warwick in 2003 and in 2007 she was appointed as an Honorary Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. Following her PhD on the safety of oral contraceptives she was involved in a series of further studies of hormonal contraceptive safety. At the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine she headed the Health Gain Project which aimed to bridge the gap between policy makers and academics by providing policy relevant research findings in the area of cardiovascular disease, and was also head of the Health Promotion Sciences Unit. More recently she has headed the Southern Africa Stroke Prevention Initiative which aimed to address the emerging burden of stroke and other cardiovascular disease in rural sub-Saharan Africa. At Warwick University she has helped to set up Masters courses in Public Health and in Research Methods for the Health Sciences. Following her PhD on the 'Geography of Public Health' whilst based at the Department of Public Health in Tower Hamlets Health Authority, Yolande Coombes moved to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1991 where she was course organiser for the Masters in Health Promotion Sciences as well as carrying out research on behaviour change, aging and evaluation. In 1998 she moved to Malawi as a consultant in behaviour change and communications. She joined the Medical College in Malawi as a Senior Lecturer and helped to set up and was Course Organiser for the MPH. In 2004 she moved to Kenya where she continued consulting for the World Health Organization, and Population Services International as a regional researcher for social marketing for East and Southern Africa. In 2007 she became a specialist consultant in sanitation marketing and hygiene with the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank and continues to work across East Africa.