Promising community-level indicators for evaluating cardiovascular health-promotion programs

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Program Evaluation
• Community Health Assessment

Background:

• Evaluating community-based health programs, especially for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention, can be expensive.
• Individual-level surveys may not always be feasible or cost-effective for comprehensive program assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and assess Community-Level Indicators (CLIs) as a supplementary or alternative evaluation method.
• To identify feasible, reliable, and valid CLIs for tracking CVD prevention program impacts at the community level.

Main Methods:

• Convened a panel of experts in community-based program evaluation and CVD prevention.
• Developed CLIs covering tobacco use, physical activity, diet, and cross-cutting behaviors.
• Categorized indicators into policy/regulation, information, environmental change, and behavioral outcomes.
• Rated indicators for feasibility, reliability, and validity.

Main Results:

• A list of CLIs was developed, categorized by behavior and type (policy, information, environment, outcome).
• Examples include tobacco use laws, physical education policies, and menu guidelines.
• These indicators provide a framework for communities to track CVD-related outcomes.

Conclusions:

• CLIs can supplement or offer a lower-cost alternative to individual-level measures in program evaluation.
• CLIs are valuable for assessing environmental changes, often an intermediate goal of community programs.
• The developed indicators serve as a starting point for communities aiming to monitor CVD prevention efforts.