Evaluation of Kaiser Permanente’s Community Health Initiatives

Project Details

Project Summary:

Kaiser Permanente’s Community Health Initiatives take a prevention-driven approach to health, supporting community-based organizations and residents to make policies and environmental changes that promote healthy eating and active living (often referred to as HEAL) in neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces in over 40 communities in Kaiser Permanente regions across the U.S. The work also addresses community economic development, environmental sustainability, and neighborhood safety—key factors in promoting healthy communities. For more information visit Kaiser Permanente’s Community Health Initiatives.

The Atkins Center for Weight and Health is a partner in the cross-site evaluation. The evaluation process measures the success of the initiative by:

Documenting whether sustainable community changes are made (e.g., Are more children physically active during the school day? Are local grocery stores offering healthier items?)
Assessing the impact of those changes on behavior
Measuring long-term population-level outcomes using surveys of youth and adults living in the communities, Kaiser Permanente’s electronic health records and other data
Capturing qualitative measures of the changes through Key Informant Interviews and Photovoice

The Atkins Center for Weight and Health also administers the student youth survey to determine the impact of the initiative on student attitudes, behaviors, and fitness; and assess students’ awareness of, and exposure to, changes made in community.

Main Findings:

The evaluation compiles and reports evaluation information in several ways, ranging from detailed individual community case studies to overall summaries across the Community Health Initiatives program. Because each collaborative was launched at varying times and because each community effort is implemented over multiple years, data collection that includes follow-up population-level surveys has been completed in only a few sites to date.

Download the Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Youth Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey

For more information about the evaluation, reports and articles see the Community Health Initiatives web page.

Policy, Practice or Research Impacts:

One interesting thing learned is how important “dose” or the impact of community changes is in driving outcomes. Estimating dose of the community strategies entails understanding the number of people exposed to the changes and the impact on each person exposed. For more information on the concept see Community Health Initiatives Population Dose Description.

Kaiser Permanente’s Community Health Initiatives' prevention-driven approach to health informs policies and environmental changes that promote healthy eating and active living (often referred to as HEAL) in neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces in over 40 communities in Kaiser Permanente regions across the U.S.

Project Type:

Policy

Qualitative Research

Quantitative Research

Topics: