Applying the Precede-Proceed Model to Promote Physical Activity
This paper applies Dr. Lawrence Green's Precede-Proceed Model to the Healthy People 2020 objective of promoting physical activity among adults at a behavioral health clinic in a low-income community. Moving through all seven phases of the model, the paper conducts a social and epidemiological assessment of the target population, identifies motivating and enabling factors, and outlines a practical 7-week exercise and health education intervention. The paper also addresses administrative alignment, implementation logistics, and evaluation methods — including survey instruments and Likert-scale measurement — to determine whether participants sustained physical activity routines and experienced measurable health improvements.
- Introduction: Overview of intervention goal and paper scope
- Phase 1: Social Assessment and Situational Analysis: Community health status and need for activity
- Phase 2: Epidemiological Diagnosis: Health risks, costs, and barriers to exercise
- Phase 3: Educational and Ecological Assessment: Motivating, enabling, and reinforcing factors
- Phase 4: Intervention, Alignment, and Administrative/Policy Assessment: Program design, resources, and organizational fit
- Phases 5 and 6: Implementation and Process: Scheduling, instructor role, and process evaluation
- Phase 7: Impact Evaluation: Survey and Likert-scale outcome measurement
- Conclusion: Summary of intervention rationale and design
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper maps every section directly onto a named phase of the Precede-Proceed Model, giving readers a clear one-to-one correspondence between theory and application.
- Evidence from peer-reviewed sources (Berlin & Colditz, 1990; Eheman et al., 2012; Vancampfort et al., 2011) is woven into the needs assessment rather than appended as decoration, strengthening the rationale for the intervention.
- Practical details — room requirements, cost estimate under $500, certificate of completion, Likert-scale surveys — ground the theoretical model in actionable planning.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates systematic framework application: a well-known public health planning model is used as an explicit scaffold, and each section tests how real-world conditions (low-income setting, behavioral health population) map onto the model's requirements. This technique shows not only that the student understands the theory but that they can operationalize it step by step.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with an introduction that states the population, objective, and scope. Seven subsequent sections each correspond to a phase of the Precede-Proceed Model — social assessment, epidemiological diagnosis, educational/ecological assessment, administrative assessment, implementation, process oversight, and impact evaluation — followed by a brief conclusion that summarizes the intervention's rationale and design.
Introduction
Using Dr. Lawrence Green's Precede-Proceed Model, the Healthy People 2020 objective of promoting physical activity can be developed into a concrete strategy. The target population for this particular objective consists of adults at a behavioral health clinic located in a low-income area. The plan is to execute a 7-week exercise class with accompanying health education to promote physical activity. The goal of the plan is to embed physical activity in the daily lives and routines of the adult clients at the clinic. This paper examines the seven phases of the Precede-Proceed Model and shows how they apply to the Healthy People 2020 objective described above.
Phase 1: Social Assessment and Situational Analysis
The health status of the low-income community in which the behavioral health clinic is situated is poor. A windshield survey indicates that few people are outdoors exercising, playing sports in parks, walking, jogging, bicycling, or taking part in any form of physical activity whatsoever. As Berlin and Colditz (1990) noted nearly three decades ago, physical activity is crucial to the prevention of many health-related issues, such as coronary heart disease. There is a lack of awareness of the benefits of physical activity among the adult clients at the behavioral health clinic, which indicates a need for an educational intervention in accordance with the model recommended by Green, Kreuter, Deeds, and Partridge (1980).
References
Berlin, J. A., & Colditz, G. A. (1990). A meta-analysis of physical activity in the prevention of coronary heart disease. American Journal of Epidemiology, 132(4), 612–628.
Colditz, G. A. (1999). Economic costs of obesity and inactivity. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 31(11 Suppl), S663–7.
Eheman, C., Henley, S. J., Ballard-Barbash, R., Jacobs, E. J., Schymura, M. J., Noone, A. M., ... & Jemal, A. (2012). Annual report to the nation on the status of cancer, 1975–2008, featuring cancers associated with excess weight and lack of sufficient physical activity. Cancer, 118(9), 2338–2366.
Green, L. W., Kreuter, M. W., Deeds, S. G., & Partridge, K. B. (1980). Health education planning: A diagnostic approach (1st ed.). Mayfield.
Molnar, B. E., Gortmaker, S. L., Bull, F. C., & Buka, S. L. (2004). Unsafe to play? Neighborhood disorder and lack of safety predict reduced physical activity among urban children and adolescents. American Journal of Health Promotion, 18(5), 378–386.
Vancampfort, D., Probst, M., Scheewe, T., Maurissen, K., Sweers, K., Knapen, J., & De Hert, M. (2011). Lack of physical activity during leisure time contributes to an impaired health-related quality of life in patients with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 129(2–3), 122–127.
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