gms | German Medical Science

Julika Loos, Claudia Seibold, Christine Eichhorn, Eckhard Nagel

Evaluation in der Gesundheitsförderung – eine Schritt für Schritt Anleitung für Gesundheitsförderer

University of Bayreuth, Institut for Medicinemanagement and Health Sciences, Bayreuth

year of publication: 2010, 116 pages

ISBN 978-4-949763-89-2

This publication is available free of charge from the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety and is aimed at practitioners. On 114 pages the authors give an introduction to the evaluation of health promotion programs but it can also easily be used as a guide for the evaluation of other intervention programs. In 11 chapters the authors look at the opportunities and difficulties associated with such evaluations. It begins with a chapter on motivation asking why we should evaluate, the importance of documentation down to the analysis of results, addressing all issues.

The individual chapters are short but well balanced. With the help of five symbols on the page edges (Development, Important, Concept, Example and Checklist), readers are encouraged to think and actively work out aspects. The entire text can be easily understood, all key points of an evaluation are addressed and in part supported with tables and illustrations that blend seamlessly into the text. This makes it fun to read these step-by-step instructions.

But in terms of instructions to plan and carry out your own evaluation, this publication keeps falling short. Although the category "Development" contains recommendations on how to conduct your own evaluation project, there are virtually no exercises to consolidate the topics that are addressed. In addition, the extensive quotations from the evaluation projects in the "Example" section are not referenced with the sources on these projects. This is curious because the authors themselves point out the importance of good documentation. The concepts and terminology distinctions mentioned in the booklet are generally not linked to additional literature. And if for once an author is named, as on page 38 (Nutbeam, 1998), you search for it in vain in the references section.

One might be tempted to advise against reading the booklet, especially since Kröger, Winter & Shaw [1] have already given us an excellent German-language manual which can also be used as a general handbook for the planning of evaluations, although it deals exclusively with the evaluation of drug addiction prevention. However, the printed version costs €7 and places more emphasis on scientific standards. The work of Loss et al. on the other hand is characterised by its visually attractive presentation, which should appeal to groups outside the scientific arena.

If it was to be published in a new edition with proper citations and some key publications in the literature recommendations (e.g. [2], [3]), one can only wish the author be widely read, as only interventions measured by their effects ensure good use of public funds. A truism, of course, which is also the case for the evaluation of other interventions, such as degree courses, but more easily implemented through better guidance.

The author declares that he has no competing interests.