Table 1 Overview of expert responses to the interview questions
Questions | Summarized expert responses |
|---|---|
A1. What does the term “evaluation” mean to you? | • Achievement of objectives • Assessment of measures • Evidence of effectiveness • Importance of systematic approach • Answer to the evaluation question • Way to optimize results and collect data • Naming of different evaluation types (process evaluation, outcome evaluation,…) |
A2. What role does the evaluation of health promotion and prevention measures play in your daily work? | • (External) analysis of different evaluations • Support evaluations • Conduct evaluations on a defined framework for specific projects only as part of development of projects • Evaluation as main part of daily work |
A3. Do you experience evaluations in practice as meaningful or rather disruptive? Please describe one example each for a meaningful evaluation or a less meaningful evaluation from your experience. | • Evaluation generally considered to be useful (for further development of programs, for supporting decisions such as financing) • Useful if specific given question is relevant • Useful if the measuring instruments are understood by participants and practitioners • No senseless evaluations • Evaluation can be considered as disruptive primarily by the “evaluated” • Evaluations can sometimes even be considered as a threat |
B. What is your assessment of the practical importance of evaluation (in terms of measuring the costs and effects) of health promotion and prevention measures, especially in children and adolescents? | • Importance of evaluation rather indirect (information for public, politicians, funding institutions) • Evaluation can serve as a basis for and contribution to decision-making • Fulfills the need to examine costs in addition to effects/effectiveness • Evaluation can offer suggestions for further development of preventive work/preventive measures |
C1. What aspects of health promotion and prevention measures (e.g., cost or effects) are particularly important to you, or when is a project successful for you? What would be an example of a particularly successful project in your opinion? (Why?) | • Project is successful when goals are reached, when actions are clearly attributable to effects • Effectiveness as a premise for offering a project, but different underlying criteria for effectiveness • Cost dimension (only mentioned by some experts) should be in reasonable proportion to effects • Projects should be transferable • Some examples of successful programs were given |
C2. Which parameters would make such a success practically measurable? | • Sustainability of certain parameters depends on the specific aim of a prevention program • Distinction should be made between what was labelled hard factors (medical figures) and soft factors (i.e., lifestyle parameters or changes in physical activity) • Costs (only mentioned by one expert) • Considering risk factors and protective factors is seen as important • Longer follow-up periods for evaluation of results are seen as important • Representative studies needed to investigate acceptance, effectiveness, feasibility, and sustainability (not only for individuals but also for structures) |
C3. What has proven to be particularly easy to implement regarding the implementation of the evaluation of health promotion and prevention measures in your experience? | • Good co-operation with all stakeholders to use their experience • Use of existing structures • Development of meaningful indicators for project success • Target group-specific design of the program • Evaluation concept should already be designed at the beginning of the measure |
C4. What obstacles are to be expected in the evaluation of health promotion and prevention measures? | • Lack of acceptance by those affected (e.g., extra effort, no direct benefit, increasing documentation needs) • Missing “evaluation and quality culture” in practice • Evaluations often seen as a threat by those affected • Worries that results could be negative • Especially in the field of prevention, often only a few effects and no long-term evaluation • Evaluation of costs often problematic because of data protection matters (e.g., for health care cost data) |