SUSTAINABILITY OF PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAMS/SCHEIRER AND DEARING RESPOND

Scheirer and Dearing's article proposing an agenda for research on the sustainability of public health programs suggested that the characteristics of an intervention might usefully be assessed according to whether [t]he intervention is (1) flexible or adaptable from its original form, (2) inexp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAmerican journal of public health (1971) Vol. 102; no. 5; p. 776
Main Authors Card, Alan J, Scheirer, Mary Ann, Dearing, James W
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington American Public Health Association 01.05.2012
Subjects
Correspondence
Editors
Intervention
Malaria
Medical research
Occupational safety
Public health
Risk assessment
Sustainability
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Summary:Scheirer and Dearing's article proposing an agenda for research on the sustainability of public health programs suggested that the characteristics of an intervention might usefully be assessed according to whether [t]he intervention is (1) flexible or adaptable from its original form, (2) inexpensive or can be delivered by volunteers, and (3) supported by evidence for its effectiveness.1(p2062) I would like to propose the hierarchy of risk controls (a model from the risk management literature) as a supplement to this approach (see box on this page). [...]if a brackish tidal pool is breeding mosquitoes that serve as a vector for malaria, the intervention of filling it in (elimination) or building a drainage ditch to the ocean to increase the salinity (design control) may be far more likely to continue reducing the incidence of malaria five years after funding has run out than an administrative control (e.g., expecting local community members to continue regular applications of larvicide).
ISSN:0090-0036