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Use of social media in health promotion and public health continues to grow in popularity, though most of what is reported in literature represents one-way messaging devoid of attributes associated with engagement, a core attribute, if not the central purpose, of social media. This article defines engagement, describes its value in maximizing the potential of social media in health promotion, proposes an evaluation hierarchy for social media engagement, and uses Twitter as a case study to illustrate how the hierarchy might function in practice. Partnership and participation are proposed as culminating outcomes for social media use in health promotion. As use of social media in health promotion moves toward this end, evaluation metrics that verify progress and inform subsequent strategies will become increasingly important.

Despite the expanding use of social media, little has been published about its appropriate role in health promotion, and even less has been written about evaluation. The purpose of this article is threefold: (a) outline purposes for social media in health promotion, (b) identify potential key performance indicators associated with these purposes, and (c) propose evaluation metrics for social media related to the key performance indicators. Process evaluation is presented in this article as an overarching evaluation strategy for social media.

Process evaluation is used to monitor and document program implementation and can aid in understanding the relationship between specific program elements and program outcomes. The scope and implementation of process evaluation has grown in complexity as its importance and utility have become more widely recognized. Several practical frameworks and models are available to practitioners to guide the development of a comprehensive evaluation plan, including process evaluation for collaborative community initiatives. However, frameworks for developing a comprehensive process-evaluation plan for targeted programs are less common. Building from previous frameworks, the authors present a comprehensive and systematic approach for developing a process-evaluation plan to assess the implementation of a targeted health promotion intervention. Suggested elements for process-evaluation plans include fidelity, dose (delivered and received), reach, recruitment, and context. The purpose of this article is to describe and illustrate the steps involved in developing a processevaluation plan for any health-promotion program.

Developmental evaluation is an emerging approach to program evaluation that emphasizes innovation and learning. It is particularly well suited to evaluating innovative programs in their earliest stages of development and adapting existing programs to complex or changing environments. Key features of the developmental evaluation approach include a tight integration between evaluators and program staff and the use of data for continuous program improvement. This article presents developmental evaluation as a complementary approach to the traditional formative–summative evaluation cycle, especially when used for preformative evaluation. To illustrate this emerging approach, the article features a case example from the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health's evaluation of its school board sexuality education policy change project. The article concludes by suggesting ways that developmental evaluation can be useful in health promotion practice.

Devising, promoting, and implementing changes in policies and regulations are important components of population-level health promotion. Whether advocating/or changes in school meal nutrition standards or restrictions on secondhand smoke, policy change can create environments conducive to healthier choices. Such policy changes often result from complex advocacy efforts that do not lend themselves to traditional evaluation approaches. In a challenging fiscal environment, allocating scarce resources to policy advocacy may be particularly difficult. A well-designed evaluation that moves beyond inventorying advocacy activities can help make the case for funding advocacy and policy change efforts. Although it is one thing to catalog meetings held, position papers drafted, and pamphlets distributed, it is quite another to demonstrate that these outputs resulted in useful policy change outcomes. This is where the emerging field of advocacy evaluation fits in by assessing (among other things) strategic learning, capacity building, and community organizing. Based on recent developments, this article highlights several challenges advocacy evaluators are currently facing and provides new resources for addressing them.

The evidence evaluating the association between school obestiy prevention policies and student weight is mixed. The lack of consistent findings may result, in part, from limited evaluation approaches. The goal of this article is to demonstrate the use of surveillance data to address methodological gaps and opportunities in the school policy evaluation literature using lessons from the School Obesity-Related Policy Evaluation (ScOPE) study. The ScOPE study uses a repeated, cross-sectional study design to evaluate the association between school food and activity policies in Minnesota and behavioral and weight status of youth attending those schools. Three surveillance tools are used to accomplish study goals: Minnesota School Health Profiles (2002-2012), Minnesota Student Survey (2001-2013), and National Center for Educational Statistics. The ScOPE study takes two broad steps. First, we assemble policy data across multiple years and monitor changes over time in school characteristics and the survey instrument(s), establish external validity, and describe trends and patterns in the distribution of policies. Second, we link policy data to student data on health behaviors and weight status, assess nonresponse bias, and identify cohorts of schools. To illustrate the potential for program evaluators, the process, challenges encountered, and solutions used in the ScOPE study are presented.

Research studies, including qualitative studies, form the basis for evidence-based practice among health professionals. However, many practicing health educators do not feel fully confident in their ability to critically appraise qualitative research studies. This publication presents an overview of qualitative research approaches, defines key terminology used in qualitative research, and provides guidelines for appraising the strengths and weaknesses of published qualitative research. On reading, health educators will be better equipped to evaluate the quality of the evidence through critical appraisals of qualitative research publications.

This article presents an adapted version of an established model for assessing community readiness along with an illustrative case example from the evaluation of Positive Action, a school-based social and character development intervention, implemented as part of a randomized controlled trial in Chicago Public Schools from 2004 through 2010. Community readiness is an emerging assessment approach that can be used to gauge the level of understanding, desire, and ownership that community members have regarding a community problem and/or intervention. This approach is useful in engaging the community and leveraging particular aspects of readiness that the community may exhibit in order to maximize an intervention's successful implementation. The article concludes with a discussion of ways in which a community readiness model may be useful in health promotion practice, both in schools and in other community settings.

There are important practical and ethical considerations for organizations in conducting their own, or commissioning external, evaluations and for both practitioners and evaluators, when assessing programs built on strongly held ideological or philosophical approaches. Assessing whether programs \"work\" has strong political, financial, and/or moral implications, particularly when expending public dollars, and may challenge objectivity about a particular program or approach. Using a case study of the evaluation of a school-based abstinence-until-marriage program, this article discusses the challenges, lessons learned, and ethical responsibilities regarding decisions about evaluation, specifically associated with ideologically driven programs. Organizations should consider various stakeholders and views associated with their program to help identify potential pitfalls in evaluation. Once identified, the program or agency needs to carefully consider its answers to two key questions: Do they want the answer and are they willing to modify the program? Having decided to evaluate, the choice of evaluator is critical to assuring that ethical principles are maintained and potential skepticism or criticism of findings can be addressed appropriately. The relationship between program and evaluator, including agreements about ownership and eventual publication and/or promotion of data, should be addressed at the outset. Programs and organizations should consider, at the outset, their ethical responsibility when findings are not expected or desired. Ultimately, agencies, organizations, and programs have an ethical responsibility to use their data to provide health promotion programs, whether ideologically founded or not, that appropriately and effectively address the problems they seek to solve.

Evaluation plays a key role in developing and sustaining community partnerships and coalitions. We recommend focusing on three levels of coalition evaluation that measure (a) processes that sustain and renew coalition infrastructure and function; (b) programs intended to meet target activities, or those that work directly toward the partnership's goals; and (c) changes in health status or the community. A tendency to focus on quick wins and short-term effects of programs may explain why some coalitions are not able to achieve systems and/or health outcomes change. Although measuring community-level or system changes (e.g., improving environmental quality or changing insurance coverage policies) is much more difficult than evaluating program outcomes, it is essential. This article presents challenges that coalition practitioners and evaluators face and concludes with practical resources for evaluation.