Flawed conclusions on the Västerbotten Intervention Program by San Sebastian et .al
- PMID: 31409308
- PMCID: PMC6693255
- DOI: 10.1186/s12889-019-7444-3
Flawed conclusions on the Västerbotten Intervention Program by San Sebastian et .al
Abstract
An evaluation of Västerbotten Intervention Programme (VIP) was recently conducted by San Sebastian et al. (BMC Public Health 19:202, 2019). Evaluation of health care interventions of this kind require 1) an understanding of both the design and the nature of the intervention, 2) correct definition of the target population, and 3) careful choice of the appropriate evaluation method. In this correspondence, we review the approach used by San Sebastian et al. as relates to these three criteria. Within this framework, we suggest important explanations for why the conclusions drawn by these authors contradict a large body of research on the effectiveness of the VIP.
Keywords: CVD; Community intervention; Evaluation; Prevention.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Comment on
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Do cardiovascular disease prevention programs in northern Sweden impact on population health? An interrupted time series analysis.BMC Public Health. 2019 Feb 15;19(1):202. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-6514-x. BMC Public Health. 2019. PMID: 30770750 Free PMC article.
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