259138 Applying the concept of “Population Dose” in planning and evaluating community health initiatives

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 : 5:30 PM - 5:50 PM

Allen Cheadle, PhD , Group Health Research Institute, Center for Community Health and Evaluation, Seattle, WA
Suzanne M. Rauzon, MPH, RD , Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Center for Weight and Health, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Pamela Schwartz, MPH , Community Benefit, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA
There are a number of recent large-scale community-level initiatives targeting obesity prevention. These initiatives typically involve a portfolio of strategies at multiple levels (e.g., individual, family, community) across multiple sectors (e.g., school, worksite, neighborhood). It is useful for both planning and evaluation purposes to have a quantitative estimate of the impact of individual obesity prevention strategies. We have created a measure of estimated strategy-level impact that we refer to as "population dose" that provides an overall estimate of the impact of a strategy on food and physical activity behaviors. Population dose is defined, similar to RE-AIM, as the product of reach (number of people exposed to an intervention strategy) and strength (change in behavior for each person reached). Since quantitative effect sizes for policy and environmental change interventions are generally unavailable, we use a rating system based on intervention intensity and frequency of exposure to assess the strength of each intervention strategy. We will present population dose results, including estimates of the validity and reliability of the strength ratings, for three communities that are part of Kaiser Permanente's Healthy Eating, Active Living Community Health Initiative in Northern California (HEAL-CHI). In addition, we will present results showing the relationship between the combined dose of strategies targeting specific outcome measures (e.g., minutes of physical activity) and population-level measures assessing those outcomes. Our results suggest that population-level intervention effects were greater where high-dose strategies were present.

Learning Areas:
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
To understand the concept of population dose and how it can be measured and applied in community based obesity prevention initiatives To understand how dose estimates can be used in combination with population-level survey data to better assess the impact of community-level initiatives

Keywords: Obesity, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Director of Strategy, Atkins Center for Weight and Health, University of California Berkeley. I have directed community health research at the Center for Weight and Health since 2002. I also direct the implementation of the national, cross-site evaluation of Kaiser Permanente’s Community Health Initiative (CHI)—designed to promote population-level change in physical activity and healthy eating.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.