Outcome Evaluation
What is outcome evaluation?
Outcomes are the actual changes resulting from program activities: changes in participant knowledge, attitude, behavior, health status, health care utilization, and disease incidence. Outcomes are often confused with program outputs, which are the products of a program’s activities (e.g., the number of people served by a program, the number of classes taught). Outcome evaluation measures the program’s outcomes and assesses program effectiveness, whereas process evaluation measures how a program is implemented (see: Process Evaluation).
What types of outcomes can an evaluation measure?
Outcome evaluation questions can address:
Short-term outcomes: These include the awareness, knowledge, opinions, attitudes, and skills gained by participants.
- For a nutrition class aimed at patients with diabetes: patients increased their understanding of good eating habits; patients were motivated to change their eating habits.
- For at-risk mothers receiving educational home visits: participating expectant mothers understood the importance of prenatal medical care.
Intermediate outcomes: These include changes in behavior.
- For a nutrition class aimed at patients with diabetes: patients’ eating habits improved.
- For at-risk mothers receiving educational home visits: participating expectant mothers attended all recommended prenatal doctor visits (after receiving education home visits).
Long-term outcomes*: These include changes in a participant’s behavior, condition, or status.
- For a nutrition class aimed at patients with diabetes: patients’ health improved.
- For at-risk mothers receiving educational home visits: participants’ babies were born healthy.
*Note: It is not always feasible to measure long-term outcomes. Expected outcomes might be beyond the time frame of the program, or may be influenced by many factors outside of the program.