Evaluation Plan: Effect of Tobacco and Alcohol on High Blood Pressure

Developing an Evaluation Plan
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Developing an Evaluation Plan
An evaluation plan could be defined as a written manuscript, which describes how to evaluate, monitor, and how the evaluation results of a program will be used in evidence-based decision-making (Bowen, 2012). It includes a describing the program and how activities from the program are associated with its desired effects. In simple terms, it clarifies the purpose and expected results of the program. It is critical that an evaluation plan also describes how the entire process of the program will be implemented by including a study design (Parreco et al., 2012). Ultimately, an evaluation plan must provide the rationale and significance of a program to a specific profession. It follows that an evaluation plan does not only help the researcher in conducting the study but also fosters transparency to decision makers and stakeholders (Lombard et al., 2015). Thus, this paper discusses all sections of an evaluation plan that will be used by the researcher to examine the effect of tobacco and alcohol use on patients with high blood pressure.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2011) defines a cross-sectional study design as a study design where outcomes and exposures are measured instantaneously within a population. Such a study design allows the researcher to deduce a relationship between the outcome and exposure (Blankenship, 2010). However, the study cannot be used for a causal-end-effect study. Another characteristic for a cross-sectional study design is that it is used for single observations or studies that take a short time. As a result, they are mostly used to examine the prevalence of diseases or disorders within a population. It is known that the researcher intends to identify the effect of tobacco and alcohol consumption on hypertension. Further, the researcher intends to conduct the study for only three months, which is a short time. Considering that the characteristics of a cross-sectional study design fits the intentions of this study, the researcher is justified to use a cross-sectional study design.
In order to complete the study successfully, the researcher intends to divide the study population into two groups. One group will contain people who are suffering from hypertension while another group will comprise of healthy study participants. Each of the groups will further subdivided into teetotalers, drunkards, smokers, non-smokers, and ex-smokers. They will also be categorized based on different age groups, which will be defined after obtaining the ages for the study participants. Additional categories for the study will include the number of beers taken every week and the number of cigarettes smoked every week. All the aforementioned categories will be independent variables while blood pressure (BP) recorded from the study participants will be the dependent variable. Further, the researcher will examine whether the effect of the independent variables is different for diastolic and systolic BP. Simply, put the diastolic and systolic BP will also be considered as dependent variable differently.
Zanazzi (2014) argues that it is useful to consider relevant responsibilities and interactions of people who...