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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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Text4Diet: A Text Message-based Intervention for Weight Loss

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

Goal: To facilitate behavior change among overweight adults that leads to sustained weight loss.

Impact: Those who use Text4Diet are exposed to customized advice regarding healthy behavior changes. Participants on average saw an average 6-pound weight loss during a four-month use period. This is a statistically significant difference from weight loss in the usual care comparison group.

The Greene Community Health Foundation (Greene County, OH)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality

Goal: The mission of the Greene Community Health Foundation is to 1. help assist underserved GCCHD clients with funding for medical needs, 2. find avenues of funding for clients, 3. develop partnerships with providers for reduced charges for clients, 4. develop community partnerships to strengthen programs and projects at GCCHD, and 5. develop state and national partnerships to strengthen the programs and projects at GCCHD.

The Michigan Antibiotic Resistance Reduction (MARR) Coalition (Michigan)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The Michigan Antibiotic Resistance Reduction Coalition (MARR) seeks to improve the use of antimicrobial agents and reduce antimicrobial resistance rates in health care facilities and communities throughout the state of Michigan through the collaborative efforts of academic, community, government, labor and industry partners. MARR seeks to accomplish this mission by serving as a catalyst and facilitator for programs of judicious antimicrobial use, and providing such programs; maintaining a repository of current and credible information about antimicrobial resistance; and participating in clinical interventions and research that will ensure improved antimicrobial use and reduce antimicrobial resistance.

The Wray Health Initiative (Wary, Colorado)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Rural

Goal: To improve health in the rural community of Wray Colorado by increasing the level of physical activities, conducting health assessments, and encouraging individual physical activity.

Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Model (TREM)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Women

Goal: The goal of this program is to facilitate trauma recovery among women with histories of exposure to sexual and physical abuse.

Impact: Studies demonstrated that TREM participants showed a significant reduction in severity of problems related to substance use from baseline to 12-month follow-up relative to the comparison group. Reduced trauma symptoms were also significantly greater for the intervention group than for the comparison group at 12-month follow-up. Furthermore, the intervention group had significantly reduced symptoms of psychological problems 1 year after the intervention.

Wood Stove Changeout Campaign (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Air

Goal: The goal of a wood stove changeout campaign is to reduce the usage of inefficient wood stoves in order to improve air quality.

Worcester Area Trial for Counseling in Hyperlipidemia (WATCH) (Massachusetts)

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

Goal: To decrease total and saturated fat intake, serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, and body weight.

Impact: The dietitian-delivered intervention effectively improved the care of patients with hyperlipidemia.

Worcester Goods for Guns Buyback (G4G) Program (Worcester, MA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Children, Teens, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The goals of this program are three-fold: first, to remove unwanted improperly stored guns from homes; second, to educate the community about the increased risk of gun-related injuries in the home and the importance of safe gun storage; and third, to identify individuals possessing improperly stored guns at home and provide them with safety information and alternatives.

Impact: This program shows a strong collaboration between health care providers and public safety offices and showcases a low-cost means of removing unwanted firearms from the community. Additionally, most participants felt their homes were safer after turning in their firearm(s).

Workplace Implementation of Act in Time (Montana)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults

Goal: The goal of the Act in Time campaign is to increase awareness to the signs and symptoms of heart attack and the need to call 911 for emergency medical services.

Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE) (Ohio)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Literacy

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide literacy skills and other basic skills to the most educationally and economically disadvantaged individuals in the state.

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.