The Iowa Department of Public Health subcontracted with the Center for Evaluation and Research to conduct an evaluation of the CDC-funded State Public Health Actions to Prevent and Control Diabetes, Heart Disease, Obesity and Associated Risk Factors and Promote School Health (CDC-RFA-DP13-1305). In 2014, results from this collaborative evaluation were presented at the 28th Annual Conference of the American Evaluation Association. 

The purpose of this grant is to enhance Iowa’s capacity to reduce the burden of chronic diseases by strengthening public health infrastructure, promoting healthy behaviors, and protecting against environmental hazards.  The Center for Evaluation and Research team partnered with IDPH to conduct an evaluation of the partnership, with results used for continuous program and quality improvement.

In 2014, Kellee McCrory, MPH, MSW and Anne Abbott, MPP, shared their evaluation findings at the 28th Annual Conference of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) in a roundtable discussion entitled “The Benefits of Collaboration: Lessons from the 1305 Chronic Disease Partnership”.  The discussion focused on the multi-pronged evaluation approach between the Center for Evaluation and Research and IDPH evaluators which built practitioners' skills and capacity to evaluate and sustain policy and environmental changes that result from partnership activities.  The approach involved:

Integration and coordination of Basic component evaluation (led by the IDPH staff evaluator) and Enhanced component evaluation (led by UI staff)
Integration of all evaluators into bi-weekly state-level program staff meetings
Bi-monthly trainings for program practitioners with topics of practitioners’ choosing
An “open door” policy giving program practitioners evaluation assistance in contract writing, performance measure development, and program dissemination plans

The integrated evaluation also allowed evaluation staff to cut possible workload redundancies and provide improved customer service to grant staff.

For more information about the 1305 evaluation or the AEA presentation, contact Kellee McCrory, MPH, MSW at kellee-mccrory@uiowa.edu.