Participant evaluation and cost of a community-based health promotion program for elders

There is little information on how best to provide health promotion and disease prevention services to elderly persons. This paper reports participants' perceptions of the effectiveness of a health promotion program consisting of health education classes and case management services. A single-group, posttest only design was used for the county-wide program, which operated independent of participants' primary care physicians. Each person received a thorough screening evaluation, was invited to health education classes, and was assigned a case manager for a 2-year health promotion period. Community residents 64-71 years of age were recruited; 475 entered the study, and 378 (79.6 percent) completed the followup evaluation interview. Only one-third of the participants attended at least one class, but a majority of those attending each class rated it very or extremely effective in increasing knowledge. To determine the effectiveness of the case managers, each participant identified the three health problems that were of greatest concern to him or her and indicated which of these priority problems were discussed with the case manager. Discussion with the case manager was significantly associated with continuing to see a personal physician for the problem, following the physician's recommendations, the problem's being under control, and the problem's improving over the 2-year followup. The classes and case management services benefited the participants who used them. How to best deliver these services to the target group needs further study.