Research
The need to understand outcomes
We believe that developers, commissioners, other payers and providers of lifestyle behavioural interventions need to understand whether their programmes, money and time are making a difference, and how to keep improving. It is critical to understand not simply how many people sign up to, attend and complete interventions, but also what psychological and physical health outcomes they achieve.
All Momenta programmes are grounded in behavioural science, evidence-based and outcome-driven, with a view to maximising programme retention, health outcomes and sustainability after the programme. To understand their impact, inform our continuous improvement and provide helpful feedback to our clients we undertake thorough analysis and evaluation of a minimum data set and encourage and support our clients to do more extensive monitoring and evaluation.
We can advise on key performance indicators, typical benchmarks, data collection, analysis and evaluation. We also inform and participate in third party evaluations. Our research is overseen by Dr Paul Chadwick, our Clinical Director, Clinical and Health Psychologist and Associate Professor at the Centre for Behaviour Change, University College London.
Approach, evaluation and analysis
Discover Momenta suggest combining process and operational metrics with demographics, a repeated measures approach to health outcomes (where participants are invited to complete questionnaires before and after the intervention) and an evaluation of service for completers. Our approach is designed by experienced managers and published clinical scientists to assess our programmes’ performance and impact on participants’ physical and mental health.
We recommend appropriate validated questionnaires according to the programme and delivery setting. Outcome measures vary by programme, for example we recommend weight, Body Mass Index (BMI), physical activity and sedentary behaviour levels, nutritional behaviours and psychological outcomes including levels of wellness, anxiety and depression for our adult eight management programme. Typical reporting also includes attendance, retention and demographic and socio-economic indicators.
We request standard deidentified minimum data sets from licensees, varying by service, and provide benchmarking reports in return, indicating whether performance is above or below average. We can also provide additional evaluation assistance and more detailed bespoke reports on request. For example, we have led in-depth qualitative and quantitative research on participants who were booked and did not attend programmes and those who dropped out early, identifying the most common underlying reasons and potential mitigations.
External evaluation and research
A number of our programmes are independently evaluated by clients and academic organisations. For example, Healthier You, the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme is being extensively evaluated by the University of Manchester and Durham University have completed an RCT on the Weight Management programme.
We are always pleased to consider supporting academic institutions interested in quantitative or qualitative studies. For example, our team has supported studies into referral mechanisms, illness perception and cultural appropriateness, as well as being involved in randomised controlled trials on three continents. Please contact us to discuss potential studies.