An examination of HIV prevention programs in the United States and public health accountability: A review of the literature and summary of lessons learned from the field September 2009 to February 2010

Program evaluation is essential to public health programs, especially HIV prevention. In today's environment of performance measurement and public accountability, the need to document success and formalize the results of such time and effort investments has never been greater. Although program evaluation can be challenging, it is possible to implement simple and practical approaches that seek to assess effectiveness and monitor program outcomes, thus providing the credible evidence needed to sustain programs, guide future action and inform policy decisions. This paper reviews the literature on evaluation of HIV prevention efforts in the United States and summarizes findings from an actual field setting within a large state agency. The descriptive analysis of the field experience focuses on activities around the application of program evaluation efforts to resource investments made. Specifically, three components of the evaluation process are emphasized: 1) the information/data collecting process; 2) analysis and assessment of the data product (outcomes); and 3) the use of data results in decision making about future action. Findings demonstrate public health representatives have an improved understanding of the importance and benefits of evaluation, are implementing realistic evaluation approaches, and highlight the need for capacity building and staff development to sustain efforts.