In the context of prevention science, community readiness is the degree to which a community is adequately prepared and willing to address its substance use prevention needs. Readiness is critical to the success of prevention programs; thus, evaluating readiness is an important step prior to disseminating prevention programs. Currently there are numerous community readiness measures, each of which emphasizes different readiness dimensions. Consequently, selecting readiness measures can become confusing for evaluators. We conducted a three-round Delphi study to review measures of readiness and identify readiness dimensions. Results indicated that there are seven common readiness dimensions across measures: leadership, knowledge of issues, knowledge of prevention efforts, attitudes towards prevention, efforts towards prevention, collaboration, and resources. Results also indicate some variation in how the measures have operationalized these dimensions. Evaluators can use these results to target specific dimensions of readiness when measuring community readiness.
Relevance
The success of community-based interventions is context dependent because local conditions affect the outcomes of the interventions (Kostadinov et al., 2015). Communities differ in their levels of readiness for accepting, implementing, and supporting programs; and research has shown that communities with higher levels of readiness are more likely to effectively plan, implement and sustain programs (Brackley et al., 2003; Engstrom, Jason, Townsend, Pokorny, & Curie, 2002; Logan, Williams, & Leukefeld, 2001). Community readiness is also considered a potential moderator of the relationship between prevention program implementation and program outcomes (Chilenski, Greenberg, & Feinberg, 2007). Since readiness plays an important factor in prevention program success, it is critical that evaluators of community-based prevention interventions assess readiness (Kostadinov et al., 2015).
A number of measures have been developed to assess community readiness; however, there is a lack of clarity regarding the relative importance of each readiness components. So, we conducted a literature review to integrate the literature on community readiness assessment for substance use prevention programs, and identify key dimensions of readiness. Our literature review resulted in the identification of seven measures assessing community readiness for substance use prevention. We used qualitative thematic analysis of these measures to identify common dimensions of readiness. We reviewed each measure and created categories to describe readiness dimensions in each measure. Then, we summarized the list of emergent categories and grouped similar categories together into more substantive categories. Results indicate that there are seven common readiness dimensions: leadership, knowledge of issues, knowledge of prevention efforts, attitudes towards prevention, efforts towards prevention, collaboration, and resources.
A review of the literature reflects the complexities and nuances of measuring readiness. Several measures have been developed to quantify community readiness, and different measures place emphasis on different dimensions. So, when evaluating community-based substance use prevention programs, choosing a measure can often be a confusing and frustrating experience. Our study contributes to the field of community-based evaluation by identifying key dimensions of community readiness for prevention programs. Additionally, we will also provide information on all seven community readiness assessment measures, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each measure. Evaluators can use our work as a guide for selecting appropriate dimensions and measures best suited for their evaluation efforts and practice.