Introduction - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 2

ated, respectively, and used evaluation criteria and scoring mechanisms provided
by the Committee for the Review of NIOSH Research Programs (IOM and NRC,
2006; NRC and IOM, 2007).
The Committee to Review the NIOSH Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Re-
search Program was convened by the National Research Council in late 2006 under
the auspices of the Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources (see Appendix
G). Committee members were chosen because of their expertise in epidemiology,
agricultural engineering, industrial hygiene, respiratory diseases, zoonotic diseases,
mental health, rural health, exposure assessment, child and adolescent safety, ergo-
nomics, farmworker safety and health, and fishing safety and health. Committee
members have varied experience in such settings as academe, industry, and labor
organizations. The statement of task for the committee is in Box 1-1.
EVALUATION APPROACH
The committee was charged with reviewing the AFF Program, evaluating the
relevance of its work to improvements in occupational safety and health, and evalu-
ating its impact on reducing workplace illnesses and injuries. As suggested in the
statement of task, the committee's review was guided by the Framework Document
(Appendix A) that was developed by the National Academies' Committee for the
Review of NIOSH Research Programs.
The Framework Document
The Framework Document directs that relevance be evaluated in terms of the
significance of research and connection to improvements in workplace protection.
It identifies factors to take into account, including the frequency and severity of
health outcomes and the number of people at risk, the structure of the program,
and the degree of consideration of stakeholder input. The impact of the program's
research is to be evaluated in terms of its contributions to worker safety and health.
The evaluation is to take the form of qualitative assessments and the assignment of
integer scores of 1-5 for the relevance and impact of the AFF Program's research
and other activities.
The guidance in the Framework Document reflects the terminology and orga-
nization of a logic model adopted by NIOSH to characterize the steps in its work.
The logic model used by the AFF Program appears as Figure 1-1. To assess the rel-
evance of the program's research, the committee examined goals, inputs, activities,
and outputs; to evaluate the impact of the program's research, it focused principally
on intermediate and end outcomes. External factors were taken into consideration
in the evaluation. The committee separately envisioned what an ideal AFF research