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In prevention and health promotion there is an increasing demand for evaluation: especially in times of economic crisis, programs, interventions, policies are asked to be based on substantial evidence of efficacy and effectiveness. Ministry and regions, to perform their governance role, need mechanisms to monitor and control, planning, directing and evaluating. This paper intends to propose some methodological reflections both for those evaluators who are going to apply to this specific area and to operators of prevention and health promotion that want to deal with problems of evaluation. This is not to achieve a final comprehensive presentation of method and techniques (perhaps impossible in a single paper) but to raise some questions and reflections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical inactivity has been linked with a number of chronic diseases affecting the population. Evidences arerising the concern and a number of nations have implemented policies promoting health increasing physical activity, using an interdisciplinary approach. New methodologies for assessing their efficacy have to consider the growing complexity and the multisectorial context of the setting. The purpose of this paper is to describe an evaluation project of physical activity promotion programs, which have been implemented in three different Italian regions: Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Autonomous Province of Trento. The evaluation process has been specially designed for each region, taking into consideration its aims and the local context of each promotion plan. The work involved the main stakeholders and was planned bearing in mind the importance of long-term sustaina-bility. It is here proposed as a contribution for developing efficient and sustainable methods and operational tools for the evaluation of health promotion programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribute describes the evaluation of the project "Genitori Più -- Campagna di promozione della salute nei primi anni di vita" (Parents Plus -- a health promotion campaign), developed during 2008-2009 in several Italian Regions. Genitori Più main objectives were to increase the knowledge and to change some behaviors in the health professionals working on birth path and in the parents, focusing on 7 determinants that have been proved important for the health of the babies. The evaluation followed the whole project with the constant implication of the project team using structured questionnaires. The evaluation surveys involved 5.961 health professionals and 5.819 parents, in particular mothers. In this paper we show how evaluation in health promotion can give to decision-makers several elements for re-thinking and adjusting the programs, using different evaluation strategy like longitudinal match over time or across different territories or across different strata of population. The evaluation showed how knowledge and behaviors are different in each territories involved in the project and between social classes, and showed much higher levels in the areas where the preventive intervention were more rooted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]