Community Nutrition, Health Promotion, and Program Planning
Core concepts
Know the program-planning cycle: needs assessment, goal and objective setting, intervention design, implementation, and evaluation. Distinguish goals (broad) from objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, time-bound). Understand formative, process, outcome, and impact evaluation. Familiarize yourself with behavior-change frameworks (transtheoretical model, social cognitive theory, socio-ecological model) and the importance of tailoring to culture, literacy, and community assets.
Community assessment tools include surveys, focus groups, key informant interviews, and secondary data. Health promotion emphasizes upstream interventions and policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change alongside individual education.
Traps in questions
- Writing an objective that is not measurable or lacks a time frame.
- Confusing process evaluation (was it delivered?) with outcome evaluation (did it work?).
- Assuming education alone changes behavior without environmental support.
- Overlooking cultural tailoring and community engagement.
Rule of thumb
A strong objective names the target population, the behavior or outcome, the criterion, and the time frame.
Worked example
Weak: "Improve nutrition." Strong: "By June, 60% of participating third graders will choose a fruit or vegetable at lunch on at least three days per week."