ABSTRACT
What is evaluation and why do it? 49 Who is it for and who should do it? 52 User evaluation 53 How best to evaluate success? 54 Challenges to evaluation in health promotion 56 Summary of key points 59 References 60 Further reading 61
Currently within the National Health Service (NHS) there is a drive to evaluate all aspects of health to ensure that all practices, including health promotion, are evidence based. Bearing in mind the ‘new kid on the block’ status of health promotion as a profession and field of study, there is added impetus for evaluation to take place to prove its worth. Evaluation in health promotion is not as straightforward as it seems. The waters are muddied by a combination of factors such as: the long timescale of projects, the many kinds of activities involved in a health-promoting project and the many stakeholders working in partnership, all of whom may have their own different objectives. The use of the randomized control trial (RCT) as the gold standard for evaluation in the health arena also complicates the evaluation of health promotion that does not fit neatly into the RCT model. This chapter, with relevant research evidence, examines what is meant by evaluation, and for whom and why it is undertaken, as well as addressing the process and challenges of evaluating a health promotion activity.
