School Health Program: Elaboration and participatory validation of its modeling

Abstract

The School Health Program (PSE) is an intersectoral initiative jointly implemented by the Ministries of Health and Education, which aims to promote the comprehensive development of students in the public school system. In 2022, upon completing 15 years of implementation, an effectiveness evaluation of the program was requested. The objective of this study is to present the participatory development and validation of PSE program model. To this end, a review of logic models in Brazilian literature was conducted to build a shared representation of the intervention, involving internal validation rounds (evaluation team) and external validation (with mapped stakeholders). As a result, seven logic models published between 2015 and 2019 were identified. The analysis allowed the definition of PSE’s technical and structural components, as well as the conceptualization of effectiveness in the context of health promotion programs. It can be concluded that the modeling process contributed to building a shared understanding of program’s functioning, highlighting its guiding principles and the complexity of its implementation. It also enabled refinement of evaluative questions and improvement of evaluation’s design, directing the focus toward analyzing the effectiveness of intersectoral management.