Development of EducaIndex: an innovative methodology for evaluating health-promoting communication

Abstract

This article presents the development of EducaIndex as an innovative and dialogical methodological proposal, which allows the evaluation of communication campaigns on HIV/AIDS and viral hepatitis by young people aged 15 to 24, linked to schools, civil society, scholars, professionals and/or managers, enabling mediation between health education, information, and communication. Data was collected in Brasília-DF and Catalão-GO in the Central-West region; Manaus-AM in the North region; Vitória-ES in the Southeast region; Porto Alegre, Santa Cruz do Sul and Fontoura Xavier-RS in the South region; and Fortaleza-CE in the Northeast region, with young people aged 15 to 24, linked to schools, civil society, scholars, professionals and/or managers. The locations were selected for convenience, considering the displacement of the team of researchers and supporters who are part of the Brazilian Network for Information Management and Knowledge Translation in Health. The research interviewed 643 young people who evaluated three campaigns, including a poster, a jingle, and a video, selected from 475 analyzed campaigns. The quantitative methodology meets the EducaIndex, and the qualitative methodology meets the workshops that mediate the application of the instrument in the field. The EducaIndex instrument was reliable (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.700), attesting the ability to reproduce results in time and space consistently. As for the workshops, they allowed interaction between researchers and participants, strengthening the importance of protagonism in the campaign evaluation process.