Bacon Caren, Malone Sara, Prewitt Kim, Hackett Rachel, Hastings Molly, Dexter Sarah, Luke Douglas A
Center for Public Health Systems Science, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States.
Division of Public Health Sciences, Department of Surgery, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States.
Front Health Serv. 2022 Nov 30;2:1004167. doi: 10.3389/frhs.2022.1004167. eCollection 2022.
Within many public health settings, there remain large challenges to sustaining evidence-based practices. The Program Sustainability Assessment Tool has been developed and validated to measure sustainability capacity of public health, social service, and educational programs. This paper describes how this tool was utilized between January 2014 and January 2019. We describe characteristics of programs that are associated with increased capacity for sustainability and ultimately describe the utility of the PSAT in sustainability research and practice.
The PSAT is comprised of 8 subscales, measuring sustainability capacity in eight distinct conceptual domains. Each subscale is made up of five items, all assessed on a 7-point Likert scale. Data were obtained from persons who used the PSAT on the online website (https://sustaintool.org/), from 2014 to 2019. In addition to the PSAT scale, participants were asked about four program-level characteristics. The resulting dataset includes 5,706 individual assessments reporting on 2,892 programs.
The mean overall PSAT score was 4.73, with the lowest and highest scoring subscales being funding stability and program adaptation, respectively. Internal consistency for each subscale was excellent (average Cronbach's alpha = 0.90, ranging from 0.85 to 0.94). Confirmatory factor analysis highlighted good to excellent fit of the PSAT measurement model (eight distinct conceptual domains) to the observed data, with a comparative fit index of 0.902, root mean square error of approximation equal to 0.054, and standardized root mean square residual of 0.054. Overall sustainability capacity was significantly related to program size ( = 25.6; < 0.001). Specifically, smaller programs (with staff sizes of ten or below) consistently reported lower program sustainability capacity. Capacity was not associated with program age and did not vary significantly by program level.
The PSAT maintained its excellent reliability when tested with a large and diverse sample over time. Initial criterion validity was explored through the assessment of program characteristics, including program type and program size. The data collected reinforces the ability of the PSAT to assess sustainability capacity for a wide variety of public health and social programs.
在许多公共卫生环境中，维持循证实践仍面临巨大挑战。已开发并验证了项目可持续性评估工具，以衡量公共卫生、社会服务和教育项目的可持续性能力。本文描述了该工具在2014年1月至2019年1月期间的使用情况。我们描述了与可持续性能力增强相关的项目特征，并最终阐述了项目可持续性评估工具（PSAT）在可持续性研究和实践中的效用。
PSAT由8个分量表组成，用于测量八个不同概念领域的可持续性能力。每个分量表由五个项目组成，均采用7点李克特量表进行评估。数据来自2014年至2019年在在线网站（https://sustaintool.org/）上使用PSAT的人员。除了PSAT量表外，还询问了参与者四个项目层面的特征。最终数据集包括对2892个项目的5706份个人评估报告。
PSAT的总体平均得分为4.73，得分最低和最高的分量表分别是资金稳定性和项目适应性。每个分量表的内部一致性都非常好（平均克朗巴哈系数=0.90，范围为0.85至0.94）。验证性因素分析表明，PSAT测量模型（八个不同概念领域）与观测数据的拟合度良好至优秀，比较拟合指数为0.902，近似均方根误差等于0.054，标准化均方根残差为0.054。总体可持续性能力与项目规模显著相关（=25.6；<0.001）。具体而言，规模较小的项目（员工规模为十人或以下）一直报告较低的项目可持续性能力。能力与项目年限无关，且在项目层面上没有显著差异。
随着时间的推移，在对大量不同样本进行测试时，PSAT保持了其出色的可靠性。通过评估项目特征（包括项目类型和项目规模）来探索初始效标效度。收集到的数据强化了PSAT评估各种公共卫生和社会项目可持续性能力的能力。
