Effects of a Communication Strategy for Evidence-Based Prevention Programs

For the successful dissemination of evidence-based prevention programs in practice settings, families need to know about existing programs and make use of those support systems. The study's aim was to track whether an awareness campaign for prevention programs can enhance the knowledge of and participation in these programs. Therefore, we implemented three evidence-based prevention programs in a German city, including an awareness campaign. We tracked changes in a randomized sample of families from the general population in the intervention and in a comparison city pre-intervention, one and two years later (quasi-experimental design). At Year 1, knowledge and participation rates were higher in the intervention city in contrast to the comparison city, with baseline similarity for participation rates and baseline differences for knowledge. One year later (Year 2), participation rates did not differ. Important implementation lessons are discussed.