Public health interventions include any effort or policy that attempts to improve the health among individuals or an entire population. They can be run by governmental health departments or non-governmental organisations and can include educational programmes, screening programmes, vaccination programmes, environmental improvements and health promotion campaigns. Interventions that include multiple independent or interacting components are referred to as complex. Evaluating and predicting the efficacy of any public health intervention, as well as calculating the cost effectiveness is essential.

Using examples from multiple published studies conducted around the world, this textbook shows readers how to evaluate public health interventions in real world settings. It enables readers to understand how to investigate whether a public health intervention works, for whom, when, where, how, and why. It provides a comprehensive introduction to key areas of evaluation including understanding complex interventions, developing programme theories, community engagement in evaluation, and the main methods used in process, impact and economic evaluation. It explains how different methods can be used individually and in combination to answer different kinds of evaluation question and at different phases in an evaluation cycle and considers how the results of evaluations can be brought together to inform action.

Designed to support both classroom and independent learning, this textbook is the ideal guide for students, practitioners and policymakers in the field of health policy and evaluation.