Planning and Evaluation in Health Education

The processes involved in planning and evaluation are discussed, the importance of making a distinction between the objectives of a programme and the methods to be used for achieving these are highlighted, and the difficulty of evaluating the effectiveness of each method in the complex setting of real life situations are discussed.

Abstract

Planning and evaluation are important for improving economy of effort and expenditure as well as the effectiveness of programmes, and for contributing to our knowledge of planned change in health-related behaviour. This paper discusses the processes involved in planning and evaluation, the importance of making a distinction between the objectives of a programme and the methods to be used for achieving these, the difficulty of evaluating the effectiveness of each method in the complex setting of real life situations, and stresses throughout the need for health education to be a cooperative venture between professionals and laymen.