Van Gool & Bridges
Figure 1 : Components of an intervention (Adapted from Puska 1996)
I Measurable change in the number of CHb deaths
The move from the ‘behaviour’ to ‘clinical’ is based on the SocialZbehaviour
effectiveness evidence of the intervention. The move from ‘clinical’ to ‘biomedical’ is
based on medical and epidemiological evidence.
The biomedical, clinical and behavioural components of an intervention are important to
its success or failure. Generally, there is more consistent evidence on the biomedical
and clinical components than the behavioural component. Also, the biomedical
component is more amenable to inferring a dose-response relationship from evaluation
studies.
Major behavioural studies have shown inconsistent conclusions. Most studies begun in
the 1970s showed positive results, whereas studies begun in the 1980s showed
inconclusive results (Rayner, 1996). This makes any analysis of community based
interventions problematic.
The German Cardiovascular Prevention Study provided some solutions to the problem
of inconsistent evidence. The study is relatively recent and the prevention program was
conducted on a population that experienced a relatively high incidence of CHD, similar
to the South Western Sydney area. Also, the study used the general population as a
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Chere Project Report 11- November 1999