The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #69611

Kathryn Pitkin Derose, MPH, PhD¹, Amanda Beatty, MPAID¹, and Catherine A. Jackson, PhD². (1) Health Program, RAND, 1700 Main St., P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138, 310-393-0411 ext 6302, kathryn_derose@rand.org, (2) RAND Health, Economics and Statistics Group, RAND, 1700 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407

Public health funding agencies have demonstrated interest in supporting collaboration as a means to build community capacity, and in turn, affect behavioral, lifestyle and social determinants of health. However, recent reviews suggest that evaluations of collaborations can be difficult, often do not reveal changes in health status and systems, and may not even address the appropriate issues and questions. In this presentation, we examine extant methods used to evaluate community-based collaboration and its outcomes. As an illustration, we discuss our experience evaluating a five-year community initiative to improve access to care. First, we present a conceptual framework of collaboration developed in participation with community stakeholders. We then discuss how multiple methods (qualitative and quantitative) can be used throughout the project to assess process and outcomes. In particular, we focus on three separate methods: baseline/formative interviews with collaboration staff and selected participants (n=21), a mid-project mail survey of all (including inactive) collaboration participants (n=74), and final interviews with collaboration participants and other community members (n=25). We compare the merits of each of these methods, incorporating effort and resources expended vs. knowledge gained. We conclude with lessons learned, including: 1) data-gathering efforts must be flexible and tailored to initiative changes; 2) information triangulation is necessary to assess effectiveness because conventional methods for establishing causality are usually not feasible; and 3) researchers (and funders) may uncover more reliable information by evaluating intermediate outcomes such as increased trust, communication and coordination among providers, rather than ultimate initiative goals.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand what is collaboration, what leads to successful collaboration, and what are the challenges presented by this strategy.
• Identify key questions that should be asked when evaluating community-based collaboration.
• Compare the usefulness of diverse methods (qualitative and quantitative) that can be used and triangulated in evaluation of collaborations.

Keywords: Collaboration, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.