TOP Books, papers, articles, manuals

Cave, B. & Curtis, V. (1999). Effectiveness of promotional techniques in environmental health.
WELL study Task No 165 (available online).
This review appears to raise legitimate grounds for doubt about the value of health promotion. However, some interventions have demonstrated major behavioural change and cannot be discounted. The design of interventions and evaluations should develop feasible and practical replacement behaviour; remove constraints to behaviour change prior to the intervention and set predefined, explicit and measurable behaviour change outcomes from the outset. Planners and policy makers need to be aware that success in effecting behaviour change is seldom evidenced, but that cost-effective interventions are possible, especially in large scale programmes.

Cohen D., Vega R. de la & Watson G. (2001). Advocacy for Social Justice. A global Action and Reflection Guide.
Oxfam America and Advocacy Institute (Kumarian Press.).
This is a very good chunky 364-page workbook, full of examples, case studies, and worksheets/ exercise sheets to use in designing advocacy work. It sets out the framework for understanding advocacy, from a social movement perspective/people-centred approach, and discusses the changes or requirements for advocacy in an era of globalisation. There is a very useful section on advocacy skills and the book takes the reader through the different steps toward strategy development. There is also a very useful chapter on resources, covering capacity building for advocacy, building networks of support, development policy and research organisations. This also lists institutions that fund advocacy work.

Gorre-Dale, E., Jong, D. de & Ling, J. (1994). Resource booklet on Communication in Water Supply and Sanitation (available online).
This booklet is designed to support people who are convinced of the need for change in the water sector and who want to know how to put a communication programme into effect, in and for the sector. It cannot be prescriptive or fulfil the role of a manual, as there is considerable variation from country to country in the way the necessary steps should be introduced. However, it offers guidance based on the experiences of many people in many countries, and outlines the steps that need to be taken to develop and implement a communication strategy. Such a strategy should be designed to support the sector goal of supplying everyone with sustainable basic water supply and sanitation.

Hubley, J. (1994). Communicating Health: An Action Guide to health education and health promotion (online contents).
London, Great Brittain. Contact address: TALC, St. Albans, ALI 4AX, UK. Tel: 0727 53869; Fax: 727 46852.
The prevention of disease and the promotion of health depend on the social conditions in which people live and decisions made by politicians, planners, families and individuals. This book explores the role of communication in improving people's health and discusses strategies for health education, health promotion and empowerment of families and communities to take action on health issues. Practical guidelines are given for how to carry out effective communication in a wide range of settings, including the family, community, schools, health services and the mass media.

Topics include an introduction to health education and health promotion; understanding human behaviour; what communication is; how to teach effectively; face-to-face communication; working with communities; using media and popular media; working with children and young people; intersectoral collaboration; and the planning process, including research, evaluation, and preparation of project proposal.

Hubley, J. online Leeds Health Education Database
This is an ongoing research project to set up a computer-based database of evaluated health education /promotion interventions in developing countries. The initial stage has been completed with over 600 publications reviewed and 350 entered into the database. Further analysis of the entries is being carried out to develop a book on evidence-based health promotion to be funded by DFID.

Hubley's conclusions of his research since 1997 are:

• Evidence exists for many health topics and methods that well designed health education/communication programmes can bring about changes in knowledge, attitudes, behaviour change and in some cases improvements in health.
• Most published evaluations in developing countries have been on sexual health, infectious and tropical diseases. There has been little effort directed at emerging problems such as cancers both tobacco-related and others, hypertension, accident prevention, drug abuse, adolescent health, disability awareness, occupational health and the workplace setting.
• Most published studies explored traditional areas of health and behaviour change.
• There were very few evaluation studies of programmes using empowerment participation or community participation.
• The impact of advocacy on health promoting policies has not been evaluated.
• Many of the programmes which provide good evidence of effectiveness are small scale pilot programmes. There is a need for research to explore issues of scaling up and introducing good practice into health and education infrastructure.
• Many good programmes have not been evaluated or have been poorly written up in the literature. There is a need to provide technical and financial support for evaluation, documentation and dissemination of health promotion activities.