Rachel Kramer, ScD, MHS¹, Andrew Goodman, MD, MPH², Roger Hayes, MA², Zoilo Torres², Rebecca Lee, MPH², and Yodit Bekele, MPH². (1) East and Central Harlem District Public Health Office, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 158 East 115th Street, Third Floor, New York, NY 10029, 212-360-5980, rachelakramer@earthlink.net, (2) East and Central Harlem District Public Health Office, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 158 East 115th Street, New York, NY 10029

Background: The neighborhoods of East and Central Harlem have some of the highest rates of asthma and diabetes in New York City. As a result, the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) is partnering with local public housing developments to improve chronic disease management and prevent diabetes by promoting regular physical activity and healthy eating. The range of public housing-based program interventions includes educational workshops, trainings in physical activity curricula, resident training in outreach and advocacy, and improvements in the physical environment. Approach: Evaluating this multi-level intervention requires a comprehensive set of process and outcome data collection activities, with active involvement from the housing-based partners. Baseline assessments of the neighborhood developments are being conducted to determine existing program activities, environmental conditions and resident concerns, interests and readiness. As intervention activities are implemented, data will be collected to track the reach of the program, its feasibility and effectiveness. These assessments will be comprised of key informant interviews, focus groups, tracking sheets, performance measures, resident surveys, observational activities and mapping of neighborhood physical conditions. Tenant associations and housing staff will assist in data collection. Existing surveillance systems will also be used to track changes in related outcomes of reported physical activity and nutrition, and diabetes hospitalizations. The challenges of the implementation of the evaluation and the interpretation of findings will be discussed. Conclusions: The evaluation plan and initial findings will demonstrate the feasibility of partnering with public housing developments to evaluate a health promotion and disease prevention program.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to

• Describe the evaluation procedures being used to assess the public housing-based program.
• Discuss the strengths and limitations of each method of evaluation.
• Analyze the interpretation of the evaluation findings.

Keywords: Community-Based Public Health, 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.