Measuring and Evaluating Injury and Violence Prevention Capacity: The Base Integration Component (BIC) of the CDC Core Violence Injury Prevention Program (Core VIPP)

Purpose: The Core Violence and Injury Prevention Program (Core VIPP) Basic Integration Component (BIC) funds 20 state health department (SHD) injury and violence prevention programs (IVPPs) to enhance their organizational capacity to implement and evaluate evidence-based programs and policies. It is hypothesized that BIC-funded SHD/IVPPs will increase or maintain the capacity needed to achieve health impact in key IVP areas (measured using SMART objectives). The Evaluation Team (Safe States, SAVIR, and CDC) is evaluating the BIC program by measuring the capacity of BIC states and investigating the relationship between capacity and health impact. This presentation will describe the innovative approach used to define and measure SHD/IVPP capacity. Methodology: Through a systematic process involving literature reviews, data examinations, and consultations with IVP professionals, nine indicators of capacity were identified as necessary to implement BIC:  Workforce; Funding; State Strategic Plans; Use of Surveillance Data; Dissemination of Surveillance Data; Use of Evaluation Findings; Dissemination of Evaluation Findings; Collaboration; and Strategies.  Results: Based on the capacity indicators, a questionnaire and interview protocol was created, and a detailed scoring system was developed to measure overall capacity across indicators. Data is collected annually to monitor and track capacity over time. Examples will be shared to illustrate the usefulness of these data. Conclusions: It is important and feasible to identify and measure SHD/IVPP organizational capacity.  The indicators have better equipped the Evaluation Team to provide technical assistance to SHD/IVPPs to implement BIC activities.  Next step: To investigate the relationship between capacity indicators and achievement of SMART objective measures.