Evaluation of a nursing student health fair program: Meeting curricular standards and improving community members' health.
John P Salerno, Evan McEwing, Yui Matsuda and 4 others
PMID 29667239WHAT IT FOUND
Community members attending six student-run health fairs improved their average health knowledge score from 1.61 to 1.90 on a 1 to 2 scale.
Satisfaction was high. Without a control group, the study cannot prove the fair caused the change.
Key findings
01Average health knowledge scores were 1.61 at baseline and 1.90 at posttest.
02Participants rated the health fair with an average satisfaction score of 2.73, where 3 means excellent.
03Most participants were currently homeless, reported as n=109 and 88%.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
There was no control group and no randomization, so the study cannot show the health fair caused the knowledge increase. The health knowledge questions were developed by students and were not validated or reliability tested. Students asked the questions verbally, which may have influenced answers, and attendees may have already been more inclined to seek health information. The evaluation measured only immediate knowledge and satisfaction, not longer-term behaviour or health outcomes. No process evaluation beyond satisfaction was done, so it is unclear how closely each fair followed the planned protocol.
Declared interests
The supplied publication types indicate NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support. The paper says the program was originally grant funded and later sustained by curriculum integration. No explicit author conflict-of-interest declaration is supplied.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the score rise as proof that the health fair caused better health. The study had no control group, used student-developed and unvalidated questions, and measured only immediate knowledge, not behaviour or health outcomes.