Health Education Research Vol.19 no.6, © Oxford University Press 2004; All rights reserved
Process Evaluation for Public Health Interventions and Research
Allan Steckler and Laura Linnan (eds)Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA 2002
ISBN 20-0201-270-2
This book is an outstanding source of information about process evaluation, and its application in public health interventions and research. From the informative and insightful foreword by Barbara Israel to the discussions of lessons learned about process evaluation that appears near the end of the 12 chapters by contributors, this book is filled with meaningful information for the graduate student in a health education, health promotion and health behavior professional preparation program. It should be an essential volume within the professional library of every practitioner and researcher within the professional field of health education. Further, practitioners and researchers from other public health disciplines and social service professions will find it immensely valuable in the evaluation of their program implementation activities.
The strengths of the book are several and each is substantial. The first chapter provides a brief, but comprehensive, review of the history and evolution of process evaluation as it has been described in health education, health promotion and health behavior literature. For those with an appreciation for history of the health education profession, this chapter alone justifies purchase of the book. Other important content in this chapter includes identification and definitions of components of process evaluation and guidance to designing an effective process evaluation plan.
Other major strengths are the range of examples of process evaluation applications, the quality of the contributors and the organization of the examples contributed. The examples are organized into four categories: community, worksite, school, and national and state. A similar organization worked well for Cleary et al. (Cleary et al., 1985
). Among the contributors, the names of Baranowski, Glanz, Stone, Parcel, Steckler and others are highly familiar to health educators and other public health professionals who have been actively engaged in their professional organizations and/or have read extensively the literature of these fields. These have all contributed to past literature that led to process evaluation gaining prominence among the ways for assuring effectiveness of public health interventions and research.
Weaknesses in the book can be cited, but they affect most heavily the readers that would be on the fringe of its target market. The book lacks color and study aids common to books disseminated in high volume to undergraduate university, community college and public school students. It will be considered dry and challenging reading to those who are unsophisticated about program evaluation and research. Clearly, this book was not written for such audiences and its sales will be minimal among them.
This book is a principal text in graduate courses of program evaluation, program planning and evaluation, and health behavior research. It will be a secondary text or listed among recommended references for several other courses in both graduate and undergraduate health education, health behavior and public health preparation programs. Hopefully, it will become a common volume in the professional libraries of many practitioners in these and closely related professional fields. It deserves to be widely read.
Professor, Texas Woman's University
References
Cleary, H.P., Kichen, J.M. and Ensor, P.G. (1985) Advancing Health Through Education: A Case Study Approach. Mayfield, Palo Alto, CA.
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