Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating Your Health Promotion Programs A 6-Week Public Health Course Week 5: Best Practices Discussion/Applying Theories, Assessments, and Best Practices to the Program/Evaluating the Program

Today: Best practices discussion Applying theories, assessments, and best practices to the program Evaluating the program Writing you plan

Best Practices Females and males ▫Work with them separately and target your message Condom negotiation skills ▫Female empowerment/male responsibility Part of comprehensive/future facing program Make it real ▫Guest speakers, someone from the outside ▫Scary pictures of STIs ▫Stress HIV prevention Speaking the students’ language ▫“Friends with benefits”

Developing Your Intervention “Successful health education and promotion programs are based on an understanding of why people behave as they do relative to their health and what causes or enables them to change.” Remember your theoretical model Targeting important and changeable behaviors Nature of the population dictates the type of learning techniques and materials Two levels of concern ▫Content of materials ▫Processes by which people learn to behave differently Integrate into already developed programs, if applicable

Methods and Materials Discussion topics, skill building exercises, peer involvement, guest speakers, teachable moments, role playing Adult Learning Theory ▫Adults are self-directed learners ▫Adults are oriented to learning that is life centered ▫Adult education considers individual differences ▫Experience is the richest source of learning for adult learners

PowerPoints and Brochures Materials ▫Not actually a learning method ▫Learning is supported by materials ▫Provide information, stimulate discussion, reinforce information provided

To Do… Make sure your goals/objectives make sense based on the evaluation discussion (homework 4) Outline your program—How many weeks? What will each session look like? (use activities from homework 4) Budget and Administrative Plan (homework 4) Develop any discussion guides, worksheets, or activity plans (outputs from homework 4)

Process Evaluation “Type III error” (failure to implement a program correctly) Quality control Activities, staff performance, monitoring Did you do what you said you were going to do?

Conducting the Process Evaluation Did you follow your timeline? Clear process (outline for program/who is going to do what?) Predetermine regular intervals to evaluate the process Note any mid-stream changes

Impact Evaluation Testing program “efficacy” Starts with the metaevaluation—What can be accomplished? Tests whether behavioral and learning objectives have been met

Conducting the Impact Evaluation Will you have a comparison group? (quasi- experimental pre-test, post-test design) How will you measure your objectives? (questionnaire, knowledge-based test, performance of a skill, observation) Question to answer: How will members of the target population demonstrate that they learned the behavior?

To Do… Come up with measures for each objective Incorporate implementing these measures into your program plan (prior to first session, at the end of the last session; give measures to a group of students in a different dorm)

Threats to Validity Confounding Selection bias Historical bias Repeat testing Instrument change Attrition Diffusion Researcher bias

Outcome Assessment (optional) Did student’s health status or quality of life change? Change in STIs (not on entry) Change in pregnancy statistics

Homework Program plan Get ready for a 5-minute report out of your program