CHES cheat sheet

Needs assessment compares current conditions with desired conditions; primary data (surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation) are gathered first-hand, while secondary data (census, vital records, surveillance, program reports) already exist.

Prevalence = existing cases ÷ total population at a point in time; incidence = new cases ÷ population at risk over a specified period.

Capacity assessment inventories community assets - organizations, funding, facilities, workforce skills, leadership, and social networks - available to address prioritized needs.

Common prioritization criteria are magnitude, severity, trend, community concern, feasibility, and availability of resources.

Qualitative methods capture beliefs, norms, and context; quantitative methods quantify magnitude and distribution; mixed methods combine both.

Community readiness stages run from no awareness, denial, vague awareness, preplanning, preparation, initiation, and stabilization to expansion/professionalization.

Validity means an instrument measures what it intends to measure; reliability means it produces consistent results on repeated use.

A logic model links inputs, activities, outputs, short-term outcomes, and long-term outcomes/impact, and is drafted during assessment and planning to guide later evaluation.

Social determinants of health - income, education, housing, transportation, and food access - are part of a complete community assessment.

PRECEDE-PROCEED phases are social assessment, epidemiological diagnosis, behavioral/environmental diagnosis, educational/ecological diagnosis, administrative/policy diagnosis, implementation, and process, impact, and outcome evaluation.

SMART objectives specify who, what, when, and how much: "By [date], X% of [population] will [behavior or condition]."

Process objectives measure activities and participation, impact objectives measure behavior or environmental change, and outcome objectives measure health status change.

Health Belief Model constructs are perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy.

Transtheoretical Model stages are precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance; strategies are matched to the participant's current stage.

Social Cognitive Theory constructs include reciprocal determinism, behavioral capability, observational learning, reinforcement, and self-efficacy.

Theory of Planned Behavior holds that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control shape intention, which in turn predicts behavior.

Social Ecological Model levels are intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy; multilevel interventions address two or more levels.

Intervention Mapping steps are needs assessment, matrices of change objectives, theory-based methods and practical strategies, program design, adoption/implementation plan, and evaluation plan.

Fidelity dimensions are adherence, dosage/exposure, quality of delivery, participant responsiveness, and program differentiation.

Adaptation preserves an intervention's core components while adjusting surface elements such as language, setting, and delivery format for the priority population.

Pilot testing reveals problems with recruitment, materials, logistics, and timing before full-scale delivery.

Social marketing applies the four Ps - product, price, place, promotion - with audience segmentation and exchange theory.

An implementation plan specifies who delivers what, to whom, when, where, and with what resources, plus a timeline and budget.

Training, technical assistance, and supervision support staff competence and consistent program delivery.

Sustainability planning - diversified funding, partner commitments, and policy embedding - begins during implementation rather than after it ends.

Barriers and facilitators occur at individual, organizational, and community levels, and implementation plans document how each will be managed.

Formative evaluation improves design and delivery; process evaluation monitors reach, dose, and fidelity; impact evaluation measures behavior or environmental change; outcome evaluation measures health status.

Summative evaluation judges a program's merit and worth after implementation and typically includes impact and outcome components.

RE-AIM dimensions are Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance.

Threats to internal validity include history, maturation, testing, instrumentation, selection, attrition, and regression to the mean.

Random assignment controls selection bias and supports causal inference; quasi-experimental designs lack random assignment.

Sensitivity = true positives ÷ (true positives + false negatives); specificity = true negatives ÷ (true negatives + false positives).

Cost-benefit analysis expresses both costs and outcomes in dollars; cost-effectiveness analysis expresses outcomes in health units such as cost per case prevented.

Statistical significance is a p-value below the preset alpha; confidence intervals indicate the precision of an estimate.

Institutional review board approval and informed consent are required before collecting data from human participants.

Advocacy aims to change policies, systems, and environments; lobbying - direct attempts to influence legislation - is one advocacy strategy among several.

501(c)(3) organizations may lobby within IRS limits but cannot devote a substantial part of activity to lobbying or endorse political candidates.

Advocacy levels are individual (client empowerment), community (coalitions and organizing), and systems/policy (legislation and regulation).

Media advocacy uses framing, spokespersons, and news hooks to shape public opinion and policy agendas.

Grassroots advocacy mobilizes constituents; grasstops advocacy mobilizes influential individuals or organizations.

An advocacy plan identifies the issue, goal, target decision-makers, allies, opponents, messages, tactics, and evaluation measures.

Policy change typically requires agenda setting, an open policy window, and coalition support.

Health in All Policies embeds health considerations into decisions made by non-health sectors such as transportation, housing, and education.

Plain language uses common words, short sentences, active voice, and logical organization; general-audience materials target roughly a 5th–6th grade reading level.

Teach-back confirms comprehension by asking the learner to explain the information in his or her own words.

Health literacy universal precautions assume any audience may have limited health literacy and simplify communication for everyone.

Diffusion of Innovations adopter categories are innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards; the innovation-decision process runs from knowledge and persuasion to decision, implementation, and confirmation.

Targeting tailors messages to a defined subgroup; tailoring customizes messages to an individual's characteristics.

Gain-framed messages emphasize benefits and loss-framed messages emphasize costs; framing effects vary by behavior, audience, and context.

Channel selection depends on audience reach, credibility, cost, interactivity, and message complexity.

Cultural competence in communication includes assessing audience language, values, literacy level, and preferred channels.

Management functions are commonly summarized as planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting.

Transformational leadership rests on idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration.

Situational leadership matches style - directing, coaching, supporting, or delegating - to follower readiness.

Tuckman's team stages are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.

SWOT analysis identifies internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats.

Herzberg's two-factor theory separates motivators (achievement, recognition, responsibility) from hygiene factors (salary, working conditions, policy).

Zero-based budgeting builds each budget from zero rather than from a prior baseline; line-item budgets list expenses by category.

Conflict modes are competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating; collaborating pursues win-win outcomes.

Kotter's change model: create urgency, form a coalition, build a vision, communicate it, remove barriers, generate short-term wins, build on change, and anchor in culture.

The Health Education Code of Ethics is organized into articles addressing responsibilities to the public, to the profession, and to employers.

Core ethical principles are autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, veracity, and fidelity.

Informed consent requires disclosure of purpose, procedures, risks, benefits, alternatives, and the right to withdraw, plus decision-making capacity and voluntariness.

Confidentiality of health information is protected by HIPAA and of education records by FERPA.

Health educators practice within their competence and refer clients when a need falls outside their training and scope.

Conflicts of interest are disclosed and managed; gifts or funding that could bias professional judgment are avoided.

CHES certification requires recertification every five years with 75 continuing education contact hours.

Vulnerable populations - children, prisoners, pregnant women, and cognitively impaired persons - receive additional human-subjects protections.

Collaboration is a reciprocal, mutually beneficial relationship with shared goals, resources, risks, and decision-making; it is deeper than cooperation or coordination because accountability is shared.

The partnership continuum is commonly described as networking, cooperating, coordinating, collaborating, and consolidating.

A memorandum of understanding documents partner roles, responsibilities, resources, timelines, and decision-making before joint work begins.

Stakeholders include funders, participants, staff, partner organizations, policymakers, and community members.

Coalition effectiveness depends on a clear mission, diverse membership, shared decision-making, regular communication, and adequate resources.

Power differentials and competing agendas are surfaced early because unmet expectations erode trust and participation.

Shared measurement and scheduled communication create accountability in multi-partner programs.

Community-based participatory approaches involve partners as co-equal decision-makers across assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation.