It guides planners through a process that starts with desired outcomes and then works backwards in the causal chain to identify a mix of strategies for achieving those objectives.
The systematic use of the framework in a series of clinical and field trials confirmed the utility and predictive validity of the model as a planning tool.
[3][5][7] Predisposing factors include knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, personal preferences, existing skills, and self-efficacy towards the desired behavior change.
Dr. Marshall Kreuter, Director of the Division of Chronic Disease Control and Community Intervention and his staff adapted and incorporated PRECEDE within a model planning process offered, with federal technical assistance, to state and local health departments to plan and evaluate health promotion programs (with their coalitions).
The relevance of this initiative to the application of PRECEDE, and the inspiration for some of the extensions of the (PATCH) model to incorporate PROCEED dimensions was detailed in a special issue of the Journal of Health Education in 1992.
[2][3][5] The first stage in the program planning phase deals with identifying and evaluating the social problems that affect the quality of life of a population of interest.
Social assessment is the "application, through broad participation, of multiple sources of information, both objective and subjective, designed to expand the mutual understanding of people regarding their aspirations for the common good".
[2] During this stage, the program planners try to gain an understanding of the social problems that affect the quality of life of the community and its members, their strengths, weaknesses, and resources; and their readiness to change.
This is done through various activities such as developing a planning committee, holding community forums, and conducting focus groups, surveys, and/or interviews.
Enabling factors are those characteristics of the environment that facilitate action and any skill or resource required to attain specific behavior.
[11] Administrative diagnosis assesses policies, resources, circumstances and prevailing organizational situations that could hinder or facilitate the development of the health program.
This phase measures the effectiveness of the program with regards to the intermediate objectives as well as the changes in predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors.
It is based on the premise that behavior change is by and large voluntary, and that health programs are more likely to be effective if they are planned and evaluated with the active participation of those who will implement them, and those who are affected by them.