Evaluation Fundamentals: Guiding Health Programs, Research, and Policy

by Arlene Fink

Through the use of numerous examples and excerpts from published evaluations, Evaluation Fundamentals covers such topics as the use of expert panels to set standards of program effectiveness, how to do literature searches (including electronic data bases), uses of epidemiological data and vital statistics in program evaluation, meta-analysis, power analysis, health policy, clinical scenarios, data management, qualitative evaluation methods (including participatory evaluations), cost benefits and cost effectiveness, and how to prepare a report and do an oral presentation. Evaluation Fundamentals also includes a number of devices to aid the reader. Each chapter opens with an overview and a reader′s guide, main concepts within the chapters are accompanied by one or more illustrations, and each chapter ends with a summary, exercises, and a suggested readings list (answers to the exercises are provided at the end of the book).

216 pages, Paperback

First published August 9, 1993

About the author

Arlene Fink (Ph.D.) is Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, and president of the Langley Research Institute. Her main interests include evaluation and survey research and the conduct of research literature reviews as well as the evaluation of their quality. Dr. Fink has conducted scores of literature reviews and evaluation studies in public health, medicine, and education. She is on the faculty of UCLA's Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and is a scientific and evaluation advisor to UCLA's Gambling Studies and IMPACT (Improving Access, Counseling & Treatment for Californians with Prostate Cancer) programs. She consults nationally and internationally for agencies such as L'institut de Promotion del la Prevention Secondaire en Addictologie (IPPSA) in Paris, France, and Peninsula Health in Victoria, Australia. Professor Fink has taught and lectured extensively all over the world and is the author of over 135 peer-reviewed articles and 15 textbooks.