[india-drug] Response to information from package inserts of OTC medicines

["Dr.Manjula Datta" <manjulad@yahoo.com>]

Response to information from package inserts of OTC medicines
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Dear All,

I think the outcome measure for any health education study should be
behaviour change, not just change in knowledge. It is well known that
change in knowledge per se is not equivalent to behaviour change.

Manjula Datta

Dr. Manjula Datta			
Professor of Epidemiology,
Dr. MGR Medical University
Tamil nadu


(Thanks for the important inputs Dr. Manjula.
Enclosed below is the info imparted during the training program of
Promoting Rational Drug Use in Community, held recently in
Bangkok???.SS

What to evaluate: process and/or effect?

When defining your evaluation questions you should primarily review the
communication objectives. What does the intervention aim to achieve? At
the end of an intervention you can measure the effects of a programme
against its objectives (effect evaluation). To understand why an
intervention succeeds or fails, you need to collect information about
the way the intervention was conducted, a process evaluation. If an
intervention was not implemented well, an effect in terms of behaviour
change is not expected. It is important to find out where in the
process the communication activity failed, so that improvement can be
made. Below is a list of process-evaluation questions by stage of the
intervention, and the most commonly asked effect questions.

Preparation 
1.	Who conducted the intervention?
2.	Why was the intervention selected? (was the intervention based on
research which identified the drug use problem confronted? Was the
target audience involved in defining the solution?)
3.	Was a needs assessment done?

Planning
4.	What objectives were set?
5.	What activities were planned? 
6.	What target audiences were identified? 
7.	Were the interventions pre-tested?
8.	Was a plan made for monitoring/evaluation?

Implementation
9.	Which of the planned activities were actually carried out?
10.	What messages were disseminated? 
11.	How many people did the message reach (coverage)?
12.	Did the intended audience pay attention to the message?
13.	Did the intended audience understand the message, and did it
convince them?
14.	What problems were encountered in implementing the intervention?

Effect
15.	Did the intervention result in changes in knowledge?
16.	Did it result in a change in behaviour?
17.	Did it lead to improvements in health?
18.	Did it have any negative and /or unexpected impact?




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