Tips for Health & Behavioral Objective Writing

The target population is 5 years old and over

Share Tips for Writing SMART Objectives

Reminders for Week 5

1. Project Overview assignment due.

Students are required to submit a one-page paper overview that entails a description of their proposed health topic (<250 words), specific target population (<150 words), one draft health objective, and one draft behavioral objective for their final paper. The instructor will provide written feedback to the student to help finalize their paper topics and foundation. This assignment is worth 5 points and must be submitted to the LMS following Live Session 4 and prior to Live Session 5.

2. Next week come to class w/ draft topic, target population, and general idea of objectives for class discussion.

1 HO (health Objectives)
2 EO (educational objectives)
1 BO (behavioral objectives)

Tips for Health & Behavioral Objective Writing:

1) Choose only one, clear health outcome or disease to focus on in your HO. Objectives with more than one topic are considered double-barreled (or triple- or quadruple-, etc.). Make sure you write multiple objectives if measuring several outcomes/behaviors.

a. DONT: Increase self-esteem, decrease smoking, or improve knowledge about condom use.
b. DO: Decrease incidence of suicide. Decrease morbidity and mortality associated with smoking. Decrease # of teen pregnancies.

2) Be careful with who your target population is and who are the populations identified in the HO and BO. You CAN simply say in the target population UNLESS the beneficiary of the health objective is NOT the target population.

a. DO:

Target Population: Oral health providers in rural northwestern Montana.
HO: Decrease morbidity associated with oral infection in children aged 8-14 years in northwester Montana by 30% over 5 years. iii.
BO: Increase participation of target population in school-based oral health clinics from 15% to 75% over 18 months.

3) Consider if the change outlined in the BO corresponds with the change outlined in the HO. As a rule (though there may be exceptions), the timeframe for the BO should be shorter than the HO and the percentage change in behavior in the BO should be larger than the HO.
a. DONT: i. HO: Reduce the incidence of high blood pressure in the target population by 50% over 5 years. ii. BO: Increase fruit and vegetable consumption in the target population by 20% over 12 months
b. DO: i. HO: Reduce the incidence of high blood pressure in the target population by 10% over 5 years. ii. BO: Increase fruit and vegetable consumption in the target population by 25% over 12 months.

4) Avoid using years in your objectives; instead use a length of time. Additionally, it is common to reference the timeframe in relation to your program (i.e. within 3 years of program implementation).
a. DONT: Decrease the incidence of teen pregnancy in the target population from 10% to 7% by 2012.
b. DO: Decrease the incidence o