A Framework for Optimizing Resource Allocation for Health Education Programs

Abstract

Health education programs conventionally are implemented in four sites: school, clinical, occupational, and community settings. One problem encountered by health education specialists, community health planners, and policy makers, is ascertaining the optimal allocation of health education resources to these four settings. This paper proposes a framework to assist in making this decision. The framework incorporates considerations of the target group, the health problem, the desired health behaviors, andad ministrative aspects of the program, which are broken down into 26 different "criteria", (e.g., age of target group, stage of disease intervention). Each of the 26 criteria has its respective "dimensions" (e.g., age of target group: pre school children, school children, and adults), and each dimension in turn suggests the optimal health education setting(s). An improved under standing of the advantages and disadvantages of implementing health edu cation programs in the different sites will facilitate better coordination be tween practitioners in school, clinical, occupational, and community settings.