Online Program

335063
Evaluation of Cardiovascular Disease Initiatives: A University and State Health Department Partnership


Monday, November 2, 2015 : 2:30 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.

M. Maya McDoom, PhD, MPH, Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University, Starkville,, MS
Connie Baird-Thomas, Ph.D., Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University, Canton, MS
Issues:  The Mississippi Delta Health Collaborative (MDHC) was established by the Mississippi Department of Health (MSDH), with funding from CDC, to help lower the risk of heart disease and stroke through education, new policy, and environmental and system changes in the 18-county Delta region.  The Collaborative employs clinical, community-based and faith-based programs that focus on one or more goals related to aspirin, A1C/blood glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol, and smoking. 

Description:  In the fourth year of a 5-year project, researchers from Mississippi State University were hired as the external evaluators of MDHC to work with the MDHC Leadership Team, Program Managers, MSDH Internal Evaluation Team, and other Collaborative stakeholders assess progress towards achieving performance goals and measuring program outcomes. Our evaluation consists of a pre- and post-test design, with no comparison groups. We describe baseline and follow-up data and the process of evaluating an initiative after an intervention has already been developed.

Lessons Learned:  This session will discuss strategies for maneuvering challenges related to various aspects of conducting program evaluation for a multi-intervention collaborative. We will discuss challenges related to: leveraging existing data sources and new data collection tools to measure program impact; the ongoing process used to adjust both programmatic and evaluation activities; and aligning academic and public health practitioner objectives to disseminate evaluation findings.

Recommendations: Developing effective partnerships between academic evaluators and public health practitioners can be challenging; however, cooperative partnerships with state health departments and communities can be conducive to conducting program evaluation in rural resource-limited areas.

Learning Areas:

Program planning
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Explain the importance of formally evaluating public health education and promotion programs. Describe the processes used by academic evaluators to develop a comprehensive evaluation for multi-level and multi-intervention collaborative.

Keyword(s): Evaluation, Community Health Programs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Delta Public Health Fellow at the Social Science Research Center. I have over 10 years experience in program evaluation, including being the lead epidemiologist on an evaluation for a statewide tobacco prevention and cessation program. In addition, my research focuses on access to health care and health outcomes among vulnerable rural populations.
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.