Evaluate one or more studies related to health promotion.

Refer to the paper 2 assessment criteria when awarding marks. These can be found under the “Your tests” tab > supplemental materials.

The command term “evaluate” requires candidates to make an appraisal of one or more studies related to health promotion by weighing up strengths and limitations of the studies. The focus of the evaluation should be upon the study/studies and not on health promotion in general. Although both strengths and limitations should be addressed, the discussion does not have to be evenly balanced to gain high marks.

Relevant studies related to health promotion may include, but are not limited to:

• Rosenstock et al.’s (1988) study related to the Health Belief Model
• Prochaska and Di Clemente’s (1983) processes of change study related to the Transtheoretical Model
• Marlatt and Gordon’s (1985) study related to the Relapse-Prevention Model
• Weinstein’s (1987) study on unrealistic optimism hindering health promotion.

Evaluation of the selected studies may include, but is not limited to:

• methodological and ethical considerations
• cultural and gender considerations
• supporting and/or contradictory findings
• the applications of the empirical findings
• how the findings of research have been interpreted
• implications of the findings.

If the candidate addresses only strengths or only limitations, the response should be awarded up to a maximum of [3] for criterion D: critical thinking. All remaining criteria should be awarded marks according to the best fit approach.

In questions that ask for evaluation of studies, marks awarded for criterion B should refer to definitions of terms and concepts. Overall this could include some knowledge of topic but more specifically knowledge and understanding related to research methods and ethics of chosen studies.

Marks awarded for criterion C assess the quality of the description of as study/studies and assess how well the student linked the findings of the study to the question – this does not need to be very sophisticated or long for these questions but still the aim or the conclusion should be linked to the topic of the specific question.

Criterion D assesses how well the student is explaining strengths and limitations of the study/studies.

Few candidates attempted to answer this question. Those who chose it responded well by choosing one or two health promotion strategies and describing and evaluating studies assessing the effectiveness of these. A few candidates attempted to focus on evaluating health promotion not the studies.