Social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook, are popular platforms for health promotion. This systematic review describes previous studies’ methods for evaluating SNS health promotion. It found that few studies were able to both assess reach of an intervention in a real-life setting while using rigorous research designs.

Community leadership is important to the success of community-based health promotion programs. This study assessed perceived community-level leadership readiness for childhood obesity prevention, at two time-points, in 168 suburbs engaged in South Australia’s Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle initiative. The study found greater increases in readiness associated with longer intervention exposure and smaller populations. The use of an online tool holds promise for illuminating the role of readiness in large-scale intervention trials.

This study assessed the usefulness of a smartphone GPS tracking system for evaluating the impact of bicycle infrastructure improvements on behavioural outcomes. Findings suggested that smartphone GPS data can supplement, not replace, existing data sources, in evaluating the impact of bicycle infrastructure improvements.

Can evaluation methods influence and enhance complex prevention initiatives? This paper illustrates how evaluation feedback loops were a critical element in a school-based violence prevention initiative. The findings have implications for health promotion activities, where evaluation tools could be utilised to enhance, rather than simply measure, the effectiveness of an intervention.

This paper describes how an evidence-based Aboriginal health policy and program strategy that was initiated, developed and led by the peak Aboriginal community-controlled health organisation in Victoria established a collaborative network of government, non-government and local Aboriginal health agencies with a shared focus and increased capacity to engage with Aboriginal Victorians regarding healthy eating.

This paper describes how routinely collected Get Healthy at Work program data was used alongside an online survey of businesses and semistructured interviews with service providers to identify areas for program improvement. The evaluation provides a real-world example of an evaluation of a large-scale workplace health program using routinely collected administrative data in combination with formal evaluation data.

This qualitative study describes the translation of a complex national-level workplace obesity-prevention initiative to state-level programs across Australia. Interviews with state program coordinators aimed at critically examining this process revealed that programmatic choices were grounded in two interrelated goals of achieving meaningful change and program sustainability. Taking program development as an evaluation target can yield important insights into how context, theory and priorities affect that process.

It is important to holistically evaluate workplace health initiatives to understand what worked, how and why. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) on a smartphone app was successfully used to collect in-the-moment responses on participants’ well being, activities and behaviour change. The novel use of EMA to measure workplace health outcomes was effective, acceptable and flexible, and can be used in future health promotion and program evaluation.

Evidence derived from research and evaluation is critical to inform policies and programs. This paper describes the range of evidence-based approaches taken by NSW Health to building research and evaluation capability within the organisation and the subsequent increase in activity, infrastructure and peer-reviewed papers. The outcomes support the value of organisations taking a structured, multistrategy approach to building research and evaluation capability.