Book Description

A practical guide to concepts, methods, and instruments for conducting an evaluation of environmental health services. Noting that managers frequently overlook the importance of evaluation, the book also performs a persuasive function, serving to illustrate the advantages of evaluation for purposes ranging from the justification of continuing expenditure to assurance that public health is being adequately protected from hazards in food, air or water. Throughout the book, examples of evaluations conducted in European countries are used to show how different approaches work to resolve specific practical problems. The book has six chapters. The first provides a general introduction to the purpose, principles and components of evaluation, as well as procedures that are frequently used. Chapter two applies these general principles to the specific setting of environmental health services, where process, impact, relevance, and adequacy of services may need to be assessed. Factors that make such services difficult to evaluate through traditional mechanisms are also briefly discussed. Against this background, a chapter on data and indicators provides detailed advice on the choice of indicators, concentrating on the use of process, environmental health, and urban indicators. Chapter four, on instruments for evaluation, outlines the strengths and weaknesses of several methods of data collection, giving particular attention to tools for economic analysis and qualitative evaluation. The remaining chapters cover the use of results in management decisions and set out five case studies of evaluations recently conducted in Europe.