Recommended reading from Anne Taylor-Vaisey: Here is a new commentary by Lawrence W. Green, one of the originators of the PRECEDE/PROCEED model, a framework for the process of systematic development and evaluation of health education programs.
Green LW. Public health asks of systems science: To advance our evidence-based practice, can you help us get more practice-based evidence? Am J Public Health 2006;AJPH.
Public health asks of systems science, as it did of sociology 40 years ago, that it help us unravel the complexity of causal forces in our varied populations and the ecologica! lly layered community and societal circumstances of public health practice. We seek a more evidence-based public health practice, but too much of our evidence comes from artificially controlled research that does not fit the realities of practice. What can we learn from our experience with sociology in the past that might guide us in drawing effectively on systems science?
Read about the PRECEDE/PROCEED model here.
Related reading: Ann Oakley, Vicki Strange, Chris Bonell, Elizabeth Allen, Judith Stephenson, RIPPLE Study Team. Health services research: Process evaluation in randomised controlled trials of complex interventions. BMJ 2006;332:413-416, doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7538.413
