Program goals and objectives
The main goal of the proposed program evaluation is to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the Parks Rx 4Health project that was launched for preventing child obesity. The first objective is to compare the level of physical activity of children before and after the project implementation. The identification of the program’s impact on child obesity is the second objective, and the third one is to reveal the attitudes of parents and children to the Parks Rx 4Health project. More to the point, the resources allocated to the program, including its accessibility and remoteness from homes and schools of participants should be evaluated along with the competence of care providers in terms of this project.
Secondary data sources
In order to identify the needs, a range of articles with the secondary data may be used. For example, there are at least free studies that integrate the analysis of data regarding the mentioned project (Messiah et al., 2016; Messiah, Kardys, & Forster, 2017; Zarr, Cottrell, & Merrill, 2017). Since these articles were published within the last five years and contain relevant information, they will be beneficial to understand the needs before the evaluation. In addition, the Internet will be accessed to collect national and state level data from the official websites such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Florida Department of Health (www.floridahealth.gov), and so on.
Types of data to collect during the program are identified in the following chart:
Advantages and disadvantages of variables: The understanding of benefits and drawbacks of the presented variables seems to be important. The identified dependent outcome variables are the main indicators that show what exactly should be measured. They depend on a range of other variables that affect it during the experiment or assessment. In their turn, nominal, also known as categorical, variables allow categorizing the dependant variable parameters to help an evaluator to consider the current situation. There is no specific ordering of the above variable, as it can be seen from the completed chart. The specified ordinal variables, be the very definition, set an ordering, which is useful to classify phenomena and people according to them. At the same time, ordinal variables detail the effectiveness of the program to be evaluated to consider it from different perspectives. Ultimately, interval continuous variables identify a scale within which the object of the program should be discussed and measured. In combination, the variables that are specified in the chart are likely to promote more comprehensive program evaluation as they illustrate what should be targeted in the course of the assessment.
References
Messiah, S. E., Jiang, S., Kardys, J., Hansen, E., Nardi, M., & Forster, L. (2016). Reducing childhood obesity through coordinated care: Development of a park prescription program. World Journal of Clinical Pediatrics, 5(3), 234-243.
Messiah, S. E., Kardys, J., & Forster, L. (2017). Reducing childhood obesity through pediatrician and park partnerships. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 23(4), 356-359.
Zarr, R., Cottrell, L., & Merrill, C. (2017). Park prescription (DC Park Rx): A new strategy to combat chronic disease in children. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 14(1), 1-2.