title: Effect evaluation of a comprehensive community intervention aimed at reducing socioeconomic health inequalities in The Netherlands.
abstract: To date, comprehensive community health projects have not been evaluated in terms of their effect at the individual level, because outcomes are usually not defined at this level. In a community health project in The Netherlands, evaluation outcome mapping, a technique derived from intervention mapping, was used to identify distal as well as proximal programme objectives from which outcome measures could be derived. The intervention took place in a deprived area, where community members themselves defined stress, lack of area safety and parenting problems as the health-related problems they wanted to see addressed in the project. Local organizations wrote and implemented an action plan. The effects among residents were studied in a quasi-experimental design. Although no significant effects on improved perceived health or health-related problems were found at the level of the residents, the problems identified and their assumed causes showed significant coherence. This study is believed to be of relevance to evidence-based health promotion theory and practice as it demonstrates that it is possible to conduct an individual effect evaluation in a comprehensive community approach without jeopardizing the process of the intervention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Education and Promotion, Universiteit Maastricht, The Netherlands. e.abbema@nspol.nl
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Abbema
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Van Assema
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Kok
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: De Leeuw
authors.forename: N K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: De Vries
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019058:Community Networks / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D012923:Social Class; D012935:Social Justice; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires