The Prevention Minimum Evaluation Data Set (PMEDS). A tool for evaluating teen pregnancy and STD/HIV/AIDS prevention programs.

This article presents the Prevention Minimum Evaluation Data Set (PMEDS), a ready-to-use questionnaire or tool for evaluating teen pregnancy prevention and teen STD/HIV/AIDS prevention programs. Recognizing the diversity of approaches taken by these programs, PMEDS has two parts. Part 1 contains a primary questionnaire applicable to all programs. Part 2 consists of 15 additional supplementary modules for optional use by programs with a more specific target population or intervention approach that matches the module's content. It is hoped that PMEDS will facilitate the conducting of high-quality evaluations, first by highlighting important aspects of a program model that should be included in an evaluation, such as the demographic profile of the target population, the specific aspects of the intervention or treatment received by each participant, and the short-term outcomes and long-term goals that the program is trying to affect; second, by presenting measures for these evaluation constructs that have been extensively pretested and used in large-scale national studies and for which national comparison norms and data exist.