Background and Objectives: In recent years, group-based health education programs have been implemented across health centers in East Azerbaijan Province. However, the evaluation of these programs has faced notable challenges, including inconsistencies with established evaluation standards. To address these gaps, the present study undertakes a comprehensive meta-evaluation of the existing assessments. Meta-evaluation, as a structured and systematic methodology, facilitates the secondary appraisal of evaluation processes, outcomes, and methodological rigor, thereby informing improvements in program quality and supporting evidence-informed decision-making at the provincial level.

Materials and Methods:  The current research is a meta-evaluation study that was conducted through document review and also quantitatively and through a checklist and finally combining the results of these two stages. The first stage includes the review of the documents available in the health center of East Azarbaijan province using the qualitative content analysis method with the frame analysis approach, in which MAXQDA software was used in this part to manage the data analysis. In the second stage of meta-evaluation of the program, based on Hartz et al.'s checklist, including the dimension of usefulness  (in 7 areas), feasibility  (in 3 areas), competence  (in 8 areas), accuracy  (in 12 areas) and features  (in 5 areas), scoring was done and found. The results of reviewing and examining the documents along with the findings of the meta-evaluation phase were presented in a report and the weaknesses and strengths of the implementation process of the program were identified.

Result: The findings of the first stage of the study showed that in the evaluation program carried out in the health center of East Azarbaijan province, attention was paid to both the process and the outcome. But the evaluation of educational programs has been carried out quantitatively and qualitative and combined methods have not been used, and change has been considered at the individual and average level and has not been addressed at the macro level, and the main strategy of health education and communication is to use and organizational and political development and interdisciplinary studies have not been addressed. The results of the second stage also showed that the evaluation program in the area of Propriety standards with 81% scored the highest and in the area of accuracy standards with 56% the lowest score in the meta-evaluation process.

Conclusion: The present results showed that the evaluation of the group health education program of the health education and health promotion unit of the health center of East Azarbaijan Province is at a relatively favorable level. The standards of Propriety, specificity and feasibility are at a very good level, and the standards of utility and accuracy were evaluated at a good level. The evaluation program also has weaknesses, the main reasons of which are the lack of specific financial resources and the lack of support due to the provincial nature of this program. The findings of the research showed that allocating a budget line to the evaluation program and using external evaluators can improve the program evaluation process. The strengths of the program include the use of valid evaluation frameworks such as the CIPP and RE-AIM model, and according to the results obtained from this study, it is concluded that in addition to strengthening the standards that have obtained high scores More attention should be paid to accuracy standards, including unbiased reporting and the use of external evaluators, and description of measures to control biases and identify and report side effects of the program.

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