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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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The Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children

Goal: To reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease by reducing risk factors among children.

The NineZero Project (Riverside, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Teens, Women

Goal: The goal of the program was to reduce Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and encourage zero alcohol use by pregnant women through educational and social marketing techniques for select target groups.

Impact: The NineZero program increased knowledge regarding FAS, and also showed that an approach with more emphasis on health education principles that have been shown to be effective in changing other substance use behaviors would have a more successful effect on attitudes, beliefs, and intentions.

VERB Summer Scorecard (Kentucky)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: To increase and maintain physical activity among tweens (youth ages 9-13).

231 Change Teams (San Diego, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Educational Attainment

Goal: The major focus of this program is on empowering classroom instructors with the knowledge, time, and compensation needed to design, implement, and evaluate 231 program activities. These activities are designed to increase and improve access for students and allow them to move through the program to reach their goals.

Alcolock (Sweden)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Public Safety, Adults

Goal: The goal of the Alcolock system is to reduce drunk driving.

CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Cancer Prevention & Control, Client-Oriented Screening Interventions: Group Education (USA)

CDC

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer, Adults, Women

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) finds insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of group education in increasing screening for cervical cancer based on the small number of studies with methodologic limitations and inconsistent findings.

CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Cancer Prevention & Control, Client-Oriented Screening Interventions: Group Education (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer, Adults

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) finds insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of group education in increasing screening for colorectal cancer, based on the small number of studies with methodologic limitations and inconsistent findings.

CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Increasing Tobacco Use Cessation: Mass Media Campaigns When Combined with Other Interventions (USA)

CDC

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Impact: The Task Force did not have enough evidence to determine whether the intervention is or is not effective. This does not mean that the intervention does not work, but rather that additional research is needed to determine whether or not the intervention is effective.

Colorectal Cancer Screening Video Decision Aid (North Carolina)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults

Goal: The goal of this video decision aid is to inform patients of their colorectal cancer screening options and increase screening rates.

Disability Awareness Training (San Diego, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Educational Attainment

Goal: The goal of this program was to teach staff the skills necessary to encourage an optimum learning environment for disabled students.

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.