142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

306210
Building the Evidence Base for Population-Level Interventions: Barriers and Opportunities

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014

Sarah Lifsey, MPP , Altarum Institute, Washington, DC
Amanda Cash, DrPH , Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, US Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC
Background:  Emphasis on implementing evidence-based public health practice and programs is increasing, particularly at the federal level, and a focus on policy, systems, and environmental approaches to improve population health have been recognized as promising but sometimes have an underdeveloped evidence base. Additionally, barriers exist to conducting rigorous and appropriate evaluations. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) commissioned the development of an easy-to-understand resource to help decision-makers and practitioners identify promising and effective population-level interventions and to develop evaluations that further the field’s knowledge of intervention effectiveness.  

Methods: A review of grey, extant, and published literature on tools and methods related to assessing evidence for community-level interventions was conducted. This review informed an expert panel, which was convened to develop a resource to guide public health decision-makers and practitioners, particularly the HHS grantees.

Results: The resource developed by the expert panel focuses on the unique strengths and challenges associated with implementing and evaluating population-level approaches for improving health. The elements of community context--such as community resources and values, among others—are of particular importance to the success or failure of community-level interventions but these elements are not often captured in existing evidence resources. Developing measures of community context and methods to integrate these measures into evidence of effectiveness is a remaining challenge to the field. By piloting the resource, the HHS hopes to advance the field’s ability to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of community-level interventions.

Learning Areas:

Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Program planning
Public health or related research
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Discuss and analyze a newly developed resource for identifying, implementing, and evaluating population-level interventions and its strengths and limitations for the field. Identify next steps for the field of population-level intervention evaluation and implementation. Discuss and analyze how to begin a systematic approach for measuring community contextual factors.

Keyword(s): Evaluation, Community-Based Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have worked in public health program evaluation for the past seven years in multiple subject areas including obesity, maternal and child health, active transportation, veteran's health, and health care delivery. My background is in public health policy. For this abstract I conducted substantive research into evaluation methods and population-level interventions.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.