Global Perspectives on Health Promotion Effectiveness

From the reviews:

"This edited volume ... raises important questions about 'what counts as evidence and who gets to decide.' It presents important challenges to dominant biomedical approaches assessing evidence and effectiveness within health promotion ... offers an introduction to the key debates and challenges involved in the evaluation of health promotion programs, as well as some useful strategies for measuring their impact ... the authors acknowledge the value and legitimacy of a wide range of epistemological  positions and scientific approaches and present their arguments using language and logic likely to be accessible and acceptable to researchers using different paradigms." -Amy E. Patterson,
MHS, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

"A remarkable new book ... an updated and expanded edition of their earlier book (Klingemann et al., 2001), which was a landmark in the field of addiction research." -Hal Arkowitz,
PsycCRITIQUES
, July 2008

"This monograph ... summarizes the challenges and approaches to answering the questions of health promotion effectiveness as they are being dealt with by the Global Program on Health Promotion Effectiveness. ... Recommended Readership: Individuals who have a strong interest ... in public health and health promotion. ... the book should be considered for libraries serving professionals in health promotion and related fields." (Robin G. Molella, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Vol. 82 (11), November, 2007)

Global Perspectives on Health Promotion Effectiveness is intended to be a critical reflection on the state of health promotion effectiveness in practice around the world. It examines the meaning of health promotion from regional perspectives, and explores regional strengths and weaknesses in demonstrating effectiveness. The book goes on to consider issues in public health such as tobacco, mental health, obesity, urbanization, war, and social determinants in order to assess the role of effectiveness, and to examine methodologies for demonstrating effectiveness. Finally, the book looks at questions over the effectiveness of health promotion the debate about the relationship between evidence, impact, and outcomes. The principal difficulty for the field of health promotion is how to show that it has a value and to find an appropriate device that will enable valuation of its practices.