Sanabria G. ¿Hemos avanzado en la evaluación de la comunicación en salud? [Have we advanced in the evaluation of communication in health?] Revista Cubana de Salud Pública [Cuban Journal of Public Health] ( Havana , Cuba ) 2001 January-June; 27(1):5-10.

Objectives: To examine progress achieved in the evaluation of health communication in Cuba .

Methodology: Bibliographic and documentary review, and interviews with experts.

Results: The author provides an historical overview of the concept of evaluation, offers a conceptual model that integrates the evaluation of both the process of research and its results, and proposes that evaluation be present in all phases.

The review of developments nationally concerning health-related communication, and the evaluation of projects and programs, indicated that studies devoted to the theme of communication and health were few in number. A review of articles in specialized journals showed the same results. Interviews with people who worked in the field of health communication revealed little use of evaluations of impact and outcomes. In many instances, the media selected, shaped, produced, and distributed material without using an adequate validation process. Those evaluations aimed at measuring impact were subject to even less control. The research did not identify a single interdisciplinary team whose work spanned the full length of a project to produce communication materials.

On the level of diagnostic evaluation, the majority of evaluations confined themselves to a simple diagnosis of health, without analyzing the state of communication and whether a health project included a communication component. Generally, those who shaped messages and who selected or produced the media by which to transmit them did not participate at the beginning of the process.

Conclusions: The weak state of evaluation in health communication has various causes, including the limited number of publications dealing with actual experiences and the low number of professionals with the skills to carry out an evaluation process.