Recommendations and Improvements for the Evaluation of Integrated Community-Wide Interventions Approaches

Abstract

Background. Integrated community-wide intervention approaches (ICIAs) are implemented to prevent childhood obesity. Programme evaluation improves these ICIAs, but professionals involved often struggle with performance. Evaluation tools have been developed to support Dutch professionals involved in ICIAs. It is unclear how useful these tools are to intended users. We therefore researched the facilitators of and barriers to ICIA programme evaluation as perceived by professionals and their experiences of the evaluation tools. Methods. Focus groups and interviews with 33 public health professionals. Data were analysed using a thematic content approach. Findings. Evaluation is hampered by insufficient time, budget, and experience with ICIAs, lack of leadership, and limited advocacy for evaluation. Epidemiologists are regarded as responsible for evaluation but feel incompetent to perform evaluation or advocate its need in a political environment. Managers did not prioritise process evaluations, involvement of stakeholders, and capacity building. The evaluation tools are perceived as valuable but too comprehensive considering limited resources. Conclusion. Evaluating ICIAs is important but most professionals are unfamiliar with it and management does not prioritise process evaluation nor incentivize professionals to evaluate. To optimise programme evaluation, more resources and coaching are required to improve professionals' evaluation capabilities and specifically the use of evaluation.

Unexpected capacity‐building experiences of multicultural, multilingual participants in a public health initiative

“…The NIRN model tool was the Initiative's first focus. This is consistent with research that CBOs have a broader capacity-building vision than a single topic (Brock et al, 2019;Cruz et al, 2018;Khenti et al, 2017;Mosson et al, 2019;Nishimura et al, 2020;van Dongen et al, 2019;van Koperen et al, 2016;Whittles et al, 2012). Ongoing responsiveness to the CBO leadership would ensure capacity-building using equity support for long-term change.…”

Prevalence of overweight among Dutch primary school children living in JOGG and non-JOGG areas

“…The evaluation of integrated approaches such as EPODE and JOGG is still in its infancy, and is complicated by often poor- to moderate-quality monitoring and evaluation [ 37 ] due to a lack of motivation, resources, time, and knowledge [ 38 , 39 ]. Furthermore, target groups are often not thoroughly assessed prior to designing the intervention, which makes it more difficult to reach and engage with the target group and achieve the intended change [ 37 ].…”

Tools for a systematic appraisal of integrated community-based approaches to prevent childhood obesity

“…More specifically, all the programmes scored moderately to low with regard to monitoring and evaluation, and a process evaluation was poor or not carried out. Poor evaluation or absence of process evaluation is commonly observed in integrated community-based approaches, while possible explanations include the lack of motivation, resources, time and knowledge [ 7 , 24 ]. Another observation through both tools was that the target group was not thoroughly assessed prior to designing the interventions.…”