Oral health promotion evaluation--time for development

Increasing emphasis is now being placed upon the evaluation of health service interventions to demonstrate their effects. A series of effectiveness reviews of the oral health education and promotion literature has demonstrated that many of these interventions are poorly and inadequately evaluated. It is therefore difficult to determine the effectiveness of many interventions. Based upon developments from the field of health promotion research this paper explores options for improving the quality of oral health promotion evaluation. It is essential that the methods and measures used in the evaluation of oral health promotion are appropriate to the intervention. For many oral health promotion interventions clinical measures and methods of evaluation may not be appropriate. This paper outlines an evaluation framework which can be used to assess the range of effects of oral health promotion programmes. Improving the quality of oral health promotion evaluation is a shared responsibility between researchers and those involved in the provision of programmes. The provision of adequate resources and training are essential requirements for this to be successfully achieved.