title: Media training for diabetes prevention: a participatory evaluation.
abstract: The Media and the Message - Promoting Healthy Eating and Active Living for Diabetes Prevention was a project aimed at raising awareness of diabetes risk factors and enhancing the public's access to credible, up-to-date, healthy eating and active living messages in the media. Cross-country workshops were held to teach media strategies and key diabetes prevention messages to multidisciplinary groups of health professionals. Evaluation was integral to the project; both the process and outcomes were assessed using Health Canada's Population Health Approach. Timeline and budget were tracked. Questionnaires were created to evaluate advisory committee conference calls and to determine participants' perceptions of the 19 workshops and resources. A pre-workshop/post-workshop and three-month follow-up questionnaire format, along with an online media-tracking tool, was used to collect outcome data and to measure changes in confidence and media behaviour. Sixty-three percent of participants (150 of 238) reported that multidisciplinary workshops were very valuable. Three-month follow-up revealed a significant increase in confidence in all media activities taught at the workshops, although this failed to translate into increased media activity. Sixty-eight percent (78 of 115) of responding participants disseminated workshop learning. Detailed evaluation revealed that multidisciplinary workshops are valued and effective in increasing confidence. However, eliciting behaviour change following a workshop remains a challenge.
authors.affiliation: McGill University, Montreal, QC.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lalonde
authors.forename: Zeinab
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jeambey
authors.forename: Linda Jacobs
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Starkey
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015438:Health Behavior; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care