Barriers to and Facilitators of the Evaluation of Integrated Community-Wide Overweight Intervention Approaches: A Qualitative Case Study in Two Dutch Municipalities

Tessa M. Van Koperen, Anja De Kruif, Lisa Van Antwerpen, Anna-Marie Hendriks, Jacob C. Seidell, Albertine J. Schuit and Carry M. Renders
Additional contact information
Tessa M. Van Koperen: Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Section Prevention and Public Health and EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands
Anja De Kruif: Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Section Methods and Applied Biostatistics, Qualitative Research, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands
Lisa Van Antwerpen: Youth on Health Weight, Causariestraat 5, Den Haag 2511 VB, The Netherlands
Anna-Marie Hendriks: Department of Health Promotion, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht, Maastricht University, Universiteitssingel 60, Maastricht 6229 ER, The Netherlands
Jacob C. Seidell: Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences and the EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands
Albertine J. Schuit: National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, PO Box 1, Bilthoven 3720 BA, The Netherlands
Carry M. Renders: Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Section Prevention and Public Health and EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: To prevent overweight and obesity the implementation of an integrated community-wide intervention approach (ICIA) is often advocated. Evaluation can enhance implementation of such an approach and demonstrate the extent of effectiveness. To be able to support professionals in the evaluation of ICIAs we studied barriers to and facilitators of ICIA evaluation. In this study ten professionals of two Dutch municipalities involved in the evaluation of an ICIA participated. We conducted semi-structured interviews ( n = 12), observed programme meetings ( n = 4) and carried out document analysis. Data were analyzed using a thematic content approach. We learned that evaluation is hampered when it is perceived as unfeasible due to limited time and budget, a lack of evaluation knowledge or a negative evaluation attitude. Other barriers are a poor understanding of the evaluation process and its added value to optimizing the programme. Sufficient communication between involved professionals on evaluation can facilitate evaluation, as does support for evaluation of ICIAs together with stakeholders at a strategic and tactical level. To stimulate the evaluation of ICIAs, we recommend supporting professionals in securing evaluation resources, providing tailored training and tools to enhance evaluation competences and stimulating strategic communication on evaluation.

Keywords: evaluation; barriers; facilitators; perceptions; case study; community; overweight (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/4/390/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/4/390/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:4:p:390-:d:67014

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().