Evaluation

The evaluation of public health programs and policies is essential to improving health outcomes. PHI offers a full suite of evaluation services—from first design to analysis—to help your organization assess what’s working, identify needs for quality improvement, and demonstrate impact and success.

PHI's experience ranges from developing and implementing evaluation measures in small rural counties to large urban settings, including public procurement standards, reduction of sugary beverage consumption, multi-unit housing policies to support tobacco prevention and cessation, and physical activity promoting community design.

Our expertise includes:

• Data collection systems: PHI develops and processes evaluation data to ensure consistent data collection across a wide variety of programs and contractors.
• Program and policy evaluation: Our experts can help to design evaluation metrics and assess the efficacy of current or proposed public health programs and policy. Evaluate public health programs and policies for environmental and systems change in tobacco, nutrition, physical activity, and more.
• Community engagement: Our staff brings unique expertise in engaging community residents, partners, and other stakeholders in the collection and evaluation processes.
• Data analysis: PHI experts are available to analyze evaluation data to provide clear findings and scalable recommendations.

HOW CAN WE WORK TOGETHER? SEND US AN EMAIL.

Resources and Tools

• Data Collection, Research and Analysis Service Offerings from the Survey Research Group
• Building Evaluation Capacity in Local Programs for Multisite Nutrition Education Interventions
• Effect of Fresh Fruit Availability at Worksites on the Fruit and Vegetable Consumption of Low-Wage Employees
• Evaluation Findings on Community Participation in the California Healthy Cities and Communities Program
• Parents in Action! Training Curriculum Evaluation

Here's How We're Making a Difference

Advancing Innovative Opioid Prevention Partnerships to Save Lives

The opioid epidemic is having a devastating impact in communities across the nation, fueling a dramatic increase in premature deaths. In California, there were almost 2,000 opioid overdose deaths in 2016. In late 2015, the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) launched a statewide network of 16 local coalitions in 23 counties focused on three priority strategies—safe opioid prescribing, use of medication-assisted addiction treatment (MAT), and access to naloxone to reverse drug overdoses. 

In 2017, PHI conducted an assessment of the California Health Care Foundation’s network of opioid safety coalitions to identify what strategies are working at the local level. PHI found that more than 90% of coalitions facilitated adoption of safer prescribing guidelines, more than 75% increased access to naloxone to reverse overdoses, and more than 50% expanded use of medication-assisted addiction treatment. 

Learn more from the report, Tackling an Epidemic: An Assessment of the California Opioid Safety Coalitions Network.

Evaluating the Berkeley Soda Tax

When Berkeley, CA became the first city in the U.S. to pass a significant excise tax on sugary drinks in 2014, PHI was hired to evaluate its impact. Lynn Silver, PHI’s senior advisor on chronic disease and former assistant health commissioner in New York City, worked with PHI’s Survey Research Group and the University of North Carolina to evaluate the tax’s impact on consumption patterns and prices. Their results showed that the $0.01 per ounce soda tax is working as intended: the fee was passed on to the retail price of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in large and small chain supermarkets and gas stations. View the preliminary findings. 

In 2017, PHI and the University of North Carolina completed a second evaluation of the tax. Published in PLOS Medicine, the largest-to-date evaluation looked at the first 12 months of the tax's implementation, and showed a 9.6% drop in sugar-sweetened beverage purchases. Meanwhile, the sales of untaxed healthier beverages rose significantly, by 3.5%—and sales of water rose by 15.6%. The study found no negative impact on store revenue or consumer grocery bills, and the tax helped the city raise $1,416,973 for nutrition and obesity prevention activities in schools, childcare and other community settings. Read the study. 

An additional PHI analysis found that a year and a half after passage of the tax, food sector sales tax revenue rose by 15% in the city, and 469 new food sector jobs were created—an increase of 7.2%. Learn more.