Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117417

Eleni Tolma, MPH PhD, Department of Health Pormotion Sciences, Univeristy of Oklahoma, P.O.Box 26901, Oklahoma City, OK 73190, (405) 271-2017, eleni-tolma@ouhsc.edu, Marshall Cheney, MA, Oklahoma City-County Health Department, 921 N.E 23rd St., Oklahoma City, OK 73105, David Chrislip, MS, MPA, Skillful Means, 3045 5th street, Boulder, CO 80304, Derek Blankskeship, MS, Department of Epidemiology &Biostatistics, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, 801 NE 13th, Oklahoma city, OK 73190, Jennifer Jackson, BA, United Way Oklahoma City, 1315 N.Broadway Place, Oklahoma city, OK 73101, Pam Troup, MA, St.Anthony North, 6201 N.Santa Fe, Oklahoma city, OK 73118, and Sharon Rodine, MEd, HEART of OKC Project, Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, 420 N.W. 13th St., #101, Oklahoma City, OK 73103.

COTP is a citizen-led community partnership. Approximately 100 stakeholders met for 9 months to develop an action plan for prioritized health problems in Oklahoma. Interviews and administration of the Profile of Collaboration (PC) survey were used as qualitative and quantitative methods of process evaluation. The purpose of this study is to examine potential associations between PC variables and stakeholder attendance and to identify how qualitative complemented quantitative results. PC, given to 87 final meeting attendants, gathered information on demographics and 5 areas of collaboration process: context, structure, membership, process, and results. Cronbach's Alpha (CA) assessed reliability of questions within the 5 areas. Logistic regression assessed the relationship between attendance and demographic and/or summary collaboration variables. Qualitative data consisted of 21 interviewed stakeholders, steering committee members and staff and analyzed with content analysis. Questions within collaboration structure, membership, and process were acceptable (CA= 0.73, 0.82, and 0.86), and those within context and results were not as high (0.65 and 0.59). Collaboration membership has a statistically significant association with attendance (p=0.0350). According to the qualitative analysis results, the main strengths of the collaborative process include stakeholder diversity and participation within an environment of respect and equality. Inadequate representation of marginalized populations was an identified weakness. The quantitative data provided a “snapshot” of the overall quality of the collaborative process, while the qualitative data provided additional complementary and confirmatory insights. The results underscore the need for multiple methods of data collection and analysis, while recognizing limitations of rigorous evaluation techniques in community settings.

Learning Objectives:

• The participants will recognize the importance of using mutliple methods of data collection and analysis during the evalution process.
• The participants will discuss limitations of applying rigorous evaluation techniques at community settings.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation