A typology of prevention activities: Applications to community coalitions

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Abstract
Use of community coalitions as a strategy for the primary prevention of tobacco, alcohol, and other drug abuse is justified in part on the prospect that these coalitions will mount comprehensive, multi-level, multi-target intervention packages. To judge the success of such coalitions, reliable and valid means for assessing the content and pattern of their overall prevention efforts are required. This article proposes a typology of prevention activities, discusses the logic on which it is based, and provides examples of useful applications in examining community coalition prevention plans. Evidence for reliability and validity is provided through assessments of inter-rater agreement, and the relation of measures of “scope of prevention activities” to independent ratings of comprehensiveness. The typology can be used in research validating the logic model on which prevention coalitions are based, and it is also demonstrably useful for improving the local planning process.