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Evaluating the Healthy Start program. Design development to evaluative assessment
K S Raykovich1, M C McCormick, E M Howell
1Harvard School of Public Health, USA.
Evaluation & the Health Professions
|August 5, 1996
Summary
Evaluating the Healthy Start program required adapting an initial design for 15 diverse grantees. This involved addressing data quality, diverse strategies, and integrating qualitative and quantitative methods for public health interventions.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Program Evaluation
- Maternal and Child Health
Background:
- The Healthy Start program is federally funded to improve maternal and infant health outcomes.
- A national evaluation required adapting pre-existing evaluation designs and data sets for diverse grantees.
Purpose of the Study:
- To discuss the experience of developing a process and outcomes evaluation design for the national Healthy Start program.
- To address challenges in evaluating diverse community-based interventions and data collection.
Main Methods:
- Translating an initial evaluation design and data set into a protocol for 15 diverse grantees.
- Accessing secondary data sources, including vital records.
- Incorporating qualitative and quantitative approaches for a comprehensive evaluation.
Main Results:
- The evaluation design needed to accommodate grantee diversity in strategies and community contexts.
- Challenges included accessing secondary data and ensuring the quality of client-level data submissions.
- Integrating mixed methods was crucial for a robust evaluation.
Conclusions:
- Adapting evaluation designs is essential for diverse public health interventions.
- Methodological flexibility, including mixed methods, is key to successful field studies.
- Lessons learned can inform future evaluations of large-scale public health programs.