Evaluating public health interventions: How can it be done to promote intersectoral collaboration?
Year: 2016
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Background: Public health interventions (PHIs) are crucial for promoting health and reducing health inequities, while intersectoral collaboration (IC) often is essential for implementing these interventions.It has been suggested that the evaluation of PHIs can influence the prospects for IC, but little is known about how the evaluation process can be designed to foster such collaboration.Objective: With this thesis I seek to examine how the evaluation of PHIs can best promote IC? Methods: I conducted a literature review, policy-document analysis, and semi-structured interviews.The literature review examined specific strategies for promoting IC through the evaluation of PHIs.The policy-document analysis considered today's evaluation processes in six focus countries -Austria, Denmark, England, Germany, Norway, and Switzerland.The interviews elicited the views of 15 key informants from these countries on the current processes for evaluating PHIs and on the specific strategies for promoting IC.Results: Several strategies for evaluating PHIs that promote IC have been suggested in the literature.Prominent among them are to include non-health benefits, to include actors outside the health sector in the evaluation of PHIs; to establish a designated national body for evaluation of PHIs; to harmonize methods for evaluating PHIs across sectors; and to use Health Impact Assessments (HIAs).At the same time, the current processes for evaluating PHIs in the six focus countries vary widely, and many of the strategies identified in the literature appear far from fully implemented.The interviewees judged many of the strategies identified in the literature review as promising for promoting IC, emphasizing the inclusion of non-health benefits and actors outside the health sector.However, the interviewees also pointed to preconditions for successfully promoting IC through the evaluation of PHIs, including sufficient political power and a general willingness of actors outside the health sector to support a health agenda.Several respondents also warned against emphasizing the term "health" when actors from the health sector interact with actors from other sectors.Conclusion: There is ample room for making the evaluation of PHIs better promote IC.The findings of this study provide several options for how this can be done.Given the importance of PHIs and IC, optimizing the evaluation of these interventions can help improve population health and reduce inequities.
Author: Sabrina Kriegner
Language: English
Subfield: Public Administration
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2554664865