Evidence for success in health promotion: Suggestions for improvement

Abstract

This paper argues that health promotion needs to develop an approach to evaluation and effectiveness that values qualitative methodologies. It posits the idea that qualitative research could learn from the experience of quantitative researchers and promote more useful ways of measuring effectiveness by the use of intermediate and indirect indicators. It refers to a European-wide project designed to gather information on the effectiveness of health promotion interventions. This project discovered that there was a need for an instrument that allowed qualitative intervention methodologies to be assessed in the same way as quantitative methods.