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Promising Practices

The Promising Practices database informs professionals and community members about documented approaches to improving community health and quality of life.

The ultimate goal is to support the systematic adoption, implementation, and evaluation of successful programs, practices, and policy changes. The database provides carefully reviewed, documented, and ranked practices that range from good ideas to evidence-based practices.
Learn more about the ranking methodology.

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CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Reducing Alcohol-Impaired Driving: Ignition Interlocks (USA)

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Adults

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends the use of ignition interlocks for people convicted of alcohol-impaired driving based on evidence that they reduce re-arrest rates while the interlocks are installed.

Public health benefits of ignition interlock interventions are currently limited by the small proportion of offenders who install interlocks in their vehicles. More widespread and sustained use of interlocks among this population could have a greater impact on alcohol-related crashes.

CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Reducing Alcohol-Impaired Driving: Mass Media Campaigns (USA)

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Adults

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends mass media campaigns to reduce alcohol-impaired driving under certain conditions. These conditions include carefully planned and well-executed campaigns; adequate audience exposure; and settings with ongoing alcohol-impaired driving prevention activities.

CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Reducing Tobacco Use Initiation: Increasing the Unit Price of Tobacco Products (USA)

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Adults

Goal: The goals is to make the use of tobacco products less attractive to young people
who have limited incomes and a variety of ways to spend their money.

Impact: These interventions that increase the price of tobacco products
showed strong evidence of their effectiveness in:
• Reducing tobacco use among adolescents and adults
• Reducing population consumption of tobacco products
• Increasing tobacco use cessation

CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Restricting Minors’ Access to Tobacco Products: Community Mobilization with Additional Interventions (USA)

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends community mobilization combined with additional interventions —such as stronger local laws directed at retailers, active enforcement of retailer sales laws, and retailer education with reinforcement—on the basis of sufficient evidence of effectiveness in reducing youth tobacco use and access to tobacco products from commercial sources.

Countywide Concussion Program (Miami Concussion Model) (Miami-Dade County, FL)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Teens

Goal: The goals of the MCM are to provide a comprehensive and centralized concussion care program to 1) increase concussion awareness and identification through education and training; 2) facilitate the return to play decision with effective medical treatment, which includes baseline neurocognitive testing; and 3) implement a standardized concussion care protocol and concussion injury surveillance system to assist in the prevention of concussions, improve player safety, and limit school liability.

Impact: From the pilot evaluation of the model it was determined that the MCM model or a similarly designed one is effective in increasing the number of concussions identified, reported, and also treated at a clinic.

Draw the Line/Respect the Line (Northern California)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Men, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The primary aim of Draw the Line/Respect the Line is to reduce the number of students who initiate or have sexual intercourse and to increase condom use among those students who do have sexual intercourse.

DUI Awareness for Teens (Hartford, CT)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program is to decrease alcohol-related automobile accidents during the prom season by making alcohol-awareness presentations to high school students.

Explore. Define. Measure: An Integrated Curriculum for the Elementary Classroom (St. Louis, MO)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Urban

Goal: The EDM program integrates asthma education into elementary school core curriculum with the intentions of raising asthma awareness and increasing asthma management knowledge.

Impact: The EDM program provides students the opportunity to increase knowledge and develop health literacy about asthma as well as expand the availability of resources for teachers.

Florida Youth ChalleNGe Academy (Florida)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Teens, Rural

Goal: The goal of the program is to intervene in the lives of high-school dropouts and provide them with the values, life skills, education, and self-discipline necessary to succeed.

Healthier Options for Public Schoolchildren (HOPS) (Osceola)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: The goal of the HOPS program was to improve overall health status and academic achievement using replicable strategies.

Impact: The HOPS intervention helped students who qualified for free or reduced price meals both stay within the normal BMI percentile and score higher on their state math achievement test.

An Effective Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success and/or promise in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures of improvement in outcome of interest (i.e. increase in voter registration, not just delivery of voter registration drive) and/ or the outcome measure is increased or improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant.

A Good Idea meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program funding source, program implementation steps and outcomes.
  2. The program evaluation is limited to descriptive measure(s) of success/accomplishment (i.e., program participation rates, number of services/education sessions/radio messages provided). Note: oftentimes, the program has been newly implemented and a program evaluation has not yet been conducted. Programs that have not yet been evaluated, but which show promise in improving health or quality of life, are classified as Good Ideas until an evaluation is conducted.

An Evidence-Based Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures showing improvement in the outcome(s) of interest after the implementation of the program (i.e. increase in smoking cessation, not just the delivery of a smoking cessation program). The outcome measure(s) is/are compared at relevant time periods before and after the intervention or program implementation. Alternatively, the evaluation study compares the outcome(s) between an intervention group and an appropriate control group.
  3. The study is of peer-review quality and presents numbers in a scientific manner; measurements of precision and reliability are included (e.g. confidence intervals, standard errors), results from statistical tests show a significant difference or change in the outcome measure(s), and relevant point estimates and p-values are presented. Note: if the results from an evaluation of a program are presented in a scientific manner and the outcome measure is improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant, the practice is classified as effective and not evidence-based.