Changes in population structure, environments, lifestyle behaviours, and patterns of disease have led to growing public health challenges, such as increasing rates of non-communicable disease (NCDs), mental ill-health, air pollution as well as the rise of antimicrobial resistance. Many of these challenges were further exacerbated by COVID‑19 and measures taken to curb the virus, in particular mental ill-health and physical inactivity.
This guidebook helps policy makers address these growing challenges by offering a tool to improve the rigour and reliability of selecting, implementing and evaluating public health interventions. It includes frameworks to identify best practice interventions that are transferable to a different region, and advice on the process for preparing and monitoring the implementation of an intervention once underway. It also covers the steps involved in designing and executing an evaluation study.
The guidebook is applicable to all types of public health interventions, such as those addressing key risk factors, managing NCDs, and the spread of infectious diseases. For example, health promotion actions delivered by primary care and other health care professionals, health literacy programs as well as policies to transform the environment in which people live. By facilitating the spread of best practice interventions, this guidebook contributes to efforts to reduce the health and economic burden caused by today’s greatest public health challenges.