Unit VII Project

MATCH (Multilevel Approach To Community Health)pg 173

A five‐step planning model (selection of health and behavioral goals, intervention planning, program development, program implementation, and evaluation) that facilitates program planning and also helps planners to integrate behavioral theories into interventions.

Two important concepts underlying MATCH are that it incorporates the ecological model and that it explicitly integrates theory with planning.

MATCH is a planning model that, like the other models discussed in this chapter, facilitates program planning. In addition, it helps planners to integrate behavioral theories into interventions, as discussed in Chapter 8. The MATCH model incorporates findings from needs assessments, literature reviews, theory, and logic into successful programs. Two important concepts underlying MATCH are that it incorporates an ecological model (discussed in Chapter 6) and that it explicitly integrates theory with planning. Thus, the model includes all the levels of the ecological model; that is, the intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, community, physical environment, and public policy factors that affect health. And all these levels are considered when designing a health promotion intervention.

The selection of an appropriate theory for intervention development is also critical, as theory holds three important functions in the MATCH model. First, theory helps program planners to conceptualize a problem. Said another way, theory helps a program planner to understand why a behavior is either occurring or not occurring. For example, consider how a planner might use the health belief model in addressing the problem of low adherence to taking prescribed medications among older community members recently diagnosed with heart disease. According to the health belief model, patients are less likely to take their medications when they do not perceive forgetting their medication as harmful (perceived severity), they do not perceive themselves to be at risk for having another heart attack (perceived susceptibility), they see no benefit in taking the medications (perceived benefits), they cannot afford to take their medications every day (perceived barriers), their doctor did not fully discuss the importance of taking the medication (cues to action), and/or they lack confidence in their ability to remember to take their medication every day (self‐efficacy). (Readers who have questions about the terminology in this description are encouraged to look ahead to the full description of the health belief model in Chapter 8.)

The second function theory has in the MATCH planning model is to help program planners identify variables of interest. This function goes hand in hand with the first function; now, however, program planners must decide which theory variables they will target for intervention. Continuing the previous example of using the health belief model, a program planner may decide to target cues to action, perceived barriers, and perceived benefits in an outpatient health promotion program delivered by nurses and health educators.

The final function of theory in the MATCH model is to assist program planners in identifying intervention strategies and methods. A number of educational, policy, and environmental methods, such as goal setting, modeling, positive reinforcement, and step‐by‐step instruction, can be operationalized into strategies that target specific theory variables. For specific strategy suggestions, readers are encouraged to seek further information regarding the theory chosen for an intervention in the work of Simons‐Morton, McLeroy, and Wendel (2012).

The MATCH model consists of five steps, each with substeps, as outlined in Table 7.3. These steps and substeps are meant to give program planners a sort of formula or recipe for program implementation, an approach that makes the MATCH model unique among the other planning models (see Figure 7.2).

Table 7.3 Essential Steps and Substeps of the MATCH Model

Step 1: Selection of health and behavioral goals

 Step 1.1: Select at‐risk target population

 Step 1.2: Select health status goals

 Step 1.3: Identify health behavior goals

 Step 1.4: Identify environmental goals

Step 2: Intervention planning

 Step 2.1: Select intervention objectives

 Step 2.2: Identify targets for the intervention

 Step 2.3: Select the intervention channel approach, theory, strategy, and methods

Step 3: Program development

 Step 3.1: Create program components

 Step 3.2: Develop intervention

 Step 3.3: Develop protocol, curriculum, manual, or guide

Step 4: Program implementation

 Step 4.1: Facilitate adoption, implementation, and maintenance

 Step 4.2: Implementation and maintenance

 Step 4.3: Dissemination and translation

Step 5: Evaluation

 Step 5.1: Conduct process evaluation

 Step 5.2: Measure evaluation

 Step 5.3: Monitor outcomes