The reciprocal effects of program evaluation on service delivery for the SPNS adolescent HIV outreach and treatment programs.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the contexts within which the Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) Adolescent HIV Outreach and Treatment programs were evaluated, the effects their evaluations had on their respective programs and, in turn, the effects the program delivery had on the evaluations.


METHODS
The full range of process evaluation heuristics were used to analyze the bi-directional effects of conducting field-based, service delivery data collection. Although data collection efforts sometimes interfered with service delivery, and vice versa, several notable positive effects were disclosed.


CONCLUSIONS
Specific guidance and recommendations were provided to program designers, behavioral researchers and institutional funding decision makers. Primary amongst them was a call for research evaluation designs that allow for maximum flexibility.
Bell
Douglas N
DN
Division of Adolescent Medicine, Stroger Hospital of Cook County, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Botwinick
Geri
G
Martinez
Jaime
J
Sell
Randall L
RL
Shaw
Kimberly
K
Walker
Lynn E
LE
Sotheran
Jo L
JL
Johnson
Robert L
RL
Friedman
Lawrence B
LB
Dodds
Sally
S
Siciliano
Carl
C
D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003625:Data Collection; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D014481:United States