Evaluation of health information outreach: theory, practice, and future direction

Abstract

Convincing evidence of the effectiveness of health information outreach projects is essential to ensure their continuity. This paper reviews the current state of health information outreach evaluation, characterizes strengths and weaknesses in projects' ability to measure their impact, and assesses enablers of and barriers to projects' success. It also relates the projects' characteristics to evaluation practices. The paper then makes recommendations for strengthening evaluation. Upon conducting a literature search, the authors identified thirty-three articles describing consumer health information outreach programs, published between 2000 and 2010. We then analyzed the outreach projects with respect to their goals and characteristics, evaluation methods and measures, and reported outcomes. The results uncovered great variation in the quality of evaluation methods, outcome measures, and reporting. Outcome measures did not always match project objectives; few quantitative measures employed pretests or reported statistical significance; and institutional change was not measured in a structured way. While papers reported successful outcomes, greater rigor in measuring and documenting outcomes would be helpful. Planning outcome evaluation carefully and conducting research into mediators between health information and behavior will strengthen the ability to identify best practices and develop a theoretical framework and practical guidance for health information outreach.