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Research
at the HPA
Research and evaluation is one of the four main business areas
identified by the Agency in its Corporate
strategy 1999 to 2002. The core values of the Agency
are based on the ethos and principles of public service and
best practice in health promotion. One of the main guiding
principles for all activities undertaken by the Agency is
the research, evaluation and dissemination of information
on best practice.
This incorporates:
- the identified
need for information, research and evaluation to inform,
develop and evaluate the work of the Agency
- the need to
be involved in a wide range of primary and secondary research
to inform and evaluate health promotion policy development
and practical interventions.
Research function
Developing Agency
programmes and activities:
- helps identify
gaps in knowledge (public, professional) to inform and develop
current Agency programmes/campaigns;
- informs the
direction of programmes and other outputs;
- identifies
the need for and develops new programmes;
- focuses on
ensuring that projects are relevant and acceptable to the
target population;
- provides research
based topic expertise on priority lifestyle and health topics
such as substance misuse, nutrition, physical activity,
mental and sexual health, to others in the health promotion
field, to the DHSSPS and the Office of the First Minister
and Deputy First Minister's Equality Unit.
Evaluating programmes
and activities
- mass media
outputs are pretested at design stage to assess their appropriateness,
their relevance to the target audience and effectiveness;
- projects adopting
a new or innovative approach are piloted to assess feasibility,
appropriateness, acceptability and potential effectiveness;
- population
surveys are undertaken to monitor the impact of key activities
(eg campaigns) and progress of programme aims
(eg prevalence data);
- programme
activities are evaluated for impact on knowledge, awareness,
attitudes, behavioural intent or behaviour change where
possible.
Supporting
research networks and partnerships
- Advice to
Government steering groups
- Participation
in advisory group on study of sexual behaviour and attitudes
of young people in Northern Ireland
- Set-up of
Regional Health Promotion Research Group
- Working with
other UK health promotion agencies and in the wider international
arena (World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre
for Training and Research in Communication, Information
Technology in Health Promotion and Disease, and the WHO
health behaviour
of school children survey).
Information
and dissemination
Information obtained from research and evaluation is disseminated
widely to inform appropriate audiences. Current activities
include:
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