Whither health promotion events? A judicial approach to evidence

This paper reports on a review undertaken for the Health Education Board for Scotland on 'health events'. On the basis of a literature review and interviews with 20 professionals in the UK, it appraised the effectiveness of such activities, assessed their current extent and status, and ultimately considered whether they are useful and relevant within emergent contexts. It suggests that the evidence base for health events is relatively weak, particularly given the scale of such work. At best, all that can be said is that there is some evidence that some of these events have some use within very specific assumptions and values. Consideration is given to possible ways forward. The paper also considers a series of related issues that impinge on the assessment of complex health promotion interventions. From our field interviews, health events are perceived by most to be labour intensive and ineffective. Rather, they are undertaken for a range of pragmatic 'public relations' reasons that exist independent of knowledge, attitudinal or behavioural outcomes. This ambiguity of expectation coupled with a paucity of published high-quality literature led to the use of a judicial approach to evidence appraisal. It considers the ways in which this exercise could be undertaken, ultimately being sceptical of systematic meta-reviews.