ssignment 2: Course Project: Health Promotion Proposal

Health Promotion Intervention Plan

Name

South University

Introduction

The health promotion issue identified for the project pertains to heart disease and stroke. These two cardiovascular diseases place a huge burden to the health care system and undermine the overall well-being of many Americans (Saffi, Pokorski, & Rabelo-Silva, 2014). Coming up with an appropriate, holistic intervention plan is thus essential for helping individuals to mitigate the incapacitating effects that may arise because of getting heart disease or stroke. Currently, a substantial number of citizens do not have adequate and comprehensive information pertaining to the risk factors, symptoms or preventive measures for combating cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, the most appropriate intervention will focus on providing health education in order to enlighten members of the community about various aspects of the conditions.

Discussion

The frontline intervention for heart disease and stroke within the local community will be health education. This intervention will have various components. The first will be teaching community members the different risk factors that may make them susceptible to developing cardiovascular conditions. Some of the factors to address during the sensitization campaigns will include the association of smoking, unhealthy diets, obesity and physical inactivity with heart disease and stroke (Brown, Clark, Dalal, Welch, & Taylor, 2011). Providing information on the importance of regular screening as well as enlightening participants on the symptoms and signs of stroke or heart disease will also be a critical component of the health education campaign. In addition, participants will receive information on using emergency medical services and 911 should they experience the symptoms of cardiovascular conditions. Saffi et al. (2014) reiterate that in order to implement the intervention successfully, there will be need for liaising with other stakeholder in the local community including nutritionists/dieticians, counselors, certified exercise instructors, community-based organizations and other members of interdisciplinary health care teams. These stakeholders will help in providing evidence-based strategies to help in combating the incidence of strokes and heart disease.

There are some potential formative and summative approaches to the evaluation of the proposed intervention. One of the most important approaches for undertaking the formative evaluation will be through conducting a needs assessment (CDC, 2011). This assessment will aid in determining the people who require the health education intervention, ascertaining the extent of the need and determining what practitioners can do to meet the identified need. Information for conducting the needs assessment will come from a variety of sources such as semi-structured interviews with community members and organizing focus groups. Summative approaches are also essential during the evaluation of the intervention. According to Kaur, Prinja, & Kumar (2015), a major summative approach is the impact evaluation. This broad approach assesses the net or overall effects of the health education intervention including both the unintended and intended consequences. It will help in identifying the impact of the intervention on the larger community and ascertaining whether the education initiative has achieved the desired goals or outcomes. Another summative approach will be outcome evaluation to assess medium-term or short-term changes such as new knowledge development, attitude change and behavior change after implementation of the health education intervention (CDC, 2011).

In evaluation, it is critical to assess how well the intervention has reached the intended participants. Some of the process involved in the evaluation will include engaging concerned stakeholders, identifying intervention elements to monitor, selecting the key evaluation questions and determining mechanisms for gathering information (Kaur et al., 2015). As part of the evaluation process, it is also essential to compare the costs of the intervention vis-à-vis the benefits derived. Apart from the financial resources, other costs may include the time and energy invested during the intervention period. Potential benefits include increased awareness of risk factors and engagement in health-promoting behaviors that minimize susceptibility to strokes and heart disease (Brown et al., 2011). Data analysis will derive from standard research techniques including the randomized control trial to determine the effect of the intervention in the participants in comparison with the control group who did not receive the intervention. After completing the evaluation, it will be crucial to relay feedback to all the stakeholders involved in the health education intervention (CDC, 2011).

Conclusion

If implemented ingeniously, the proposed intervention of health education to deal with the issues of heart disease and stroke will realize the intended outcomes of improving awareness on the risk factors, etiology and preventive measures for the cardiac conditions. Noteworthy, evaluation should be a major component of the implementation process. Using formative approaches such as a needs assessment and summative approaches such as impact evaluation will help in guaranteeing success. It is also critical to documents the elements of the evaluation including tools, process and data analysis.

References

Brown, J. P., Clark, A., Dalal, H., Welch, K., & Taylor, R. (2011). Patient education in the management of coronary heart disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews , 12, 2-81.

CDC. (2011, October). Introduction to program evaluation for public health programs. Retrieved November 01, 2016, from https://www.cdc.gov/eval/guide/cdcevalmanual.pdf

Kaur, M., Prinja, S., & Kumar, R. (2015). Evaluating the performance of health promotion interventions. Indian J Med Res , 142, 109-112.

Saffi, M., Pokorski, S., & Rabelo-Silva, E. (2014). Cardiovascular risk factors and evidence-based health education. Health , 6, 625-631.