Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 9, 2026

'Boden Food Plate': Novel Interactive Web-based Method for the Assessment of Dietary Intake
Published on: September 18, 2018
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on the Effectiveness of Health Rocks!-Insights from Retrospective and
Zhenqiao Yang1, Yunqi Wang2, Yan Ruth Xia2
1Department of Child and Family Studies, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA.
Background:
Adolescence is a crucial stage for substance abuse prevention. However, evaluations of adolescent substance abuse prevention programs often lacked a comprehensive perspective, failing to consider multiple program characteristics.
Objectives:
This study aimed to improve knowledge of the effectiveness of large-scale adolescent substance abuse prevention programs by comprehensively evaluating Health Rocks! through multifaceted evidence from the literature. It also sought to provide insights into utilizing retrospective designs in program evaluation research.
Results:
Using systematic review and meta-analysis approaches, this study included eight final studies published between January 2009 and October 2024. The systematic review revealed different types of assessment on Health Rocks! in the literature. The program's strong implementation quality contributed to program effectiveness. The meta-analysis found small effect sizes in three program outcomes in youth knowledge, skills, and psychological assets. We also observed variation in unweighted effect sizes between the studies using retrospective and prospective designs.
Conclusions:
Health Rocks! appeared to be a high quality national program. Evidence supported the ulitity of retrospective design but with a potential challenge of inflation in effect size. More insights on program effectiveness, retrospective design and improvement of future research are presented in this paper.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Observational Studies
There are three types of observational studies – Prospective, retrospective, and cross-sectional.
Prospective Study
Prospective studies, also known as longitudinal or cohort studies, are carried out by collecting future data from groups sharing similar characteristics. One...
Stress Prevention and Stress Management Techniques VI
Motivation and Self-Determination
Motivation, the driving force behind behavior, plays a pivotal role at every stage of the change process. The research...
Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast,...
Regression Toward the Mean
Longitudinal Research
Study Designs in Epidemiology
Observational studies are those where the researcher does not intervene but rather observes natural variations. They include cross-sectional, cohort, and...

