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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.

Please note: Separate your search terms with spaces, and use quotes to search for specific text (example: "mental health"). 

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Utilization of Food Sample Results to Improve Food Safety (Maricopa County, AZ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Food Safety

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the risk of foodborne illness for Maricopa County citizens and visitors by using food sample results to address complaints and increase the efficacy of routine inspections.

Vaccination Programs: Community-Based Interventions Implemented in Combination

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends using a combination of community-based interventions to increase vaccination rates in targeted populations.
Interventions may aim to increase community demand, enhance access to vaccination services, or reduce missed opportunities by vaccination providers.

Vaccination Programs: Home Visits to Increase Vaccination Rates

NewCDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends home visits to increase vaccination rates in children and adults. The CPSTF notes, however, that economic evidence shows home visits can be resource-intensive and costly relative to other options.

Vaccination Programs: Reducing Client Out-of-Pocket Costs

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends interventions that reduce client out-of-pocket costs used alone or combined with additional interventions to increase vaccination rates among people of all ages in a range of settings and populations. This includes interventions for individual clinical settings, statewide programs, or national efforts.

Video Game Play (Texas, North Carolina)

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

Goal: The goal of this study was to investigate how video games can be utilized to promote healthy behavior changes in diet, physical activity, and adiposity to reduce adverse health effects.

Violence Intervention Program (VIP) - Baltimore (Baltimore, MD)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Teens, Adults, Men, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) is to reduce the number of repeat victims of intentional violent injury by providing assessment, counseling, and social support from a multi-disciplinary team.

Impact: Patients who participated in the Violence Intervention Program were less likely to be re-hospitalized due to violent injury.

Vision Literacy (Santa Clara, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Literacy, Adults

Goal: Vision Literacy aims to empower adults by improving reading, writing, basic math, and computer skills.

Walking School Bus (Houston, TX)

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

Goal: The goal of the "walking school bus" is to increase children's rates of active commuting to school and physical activity.

Web-Based Committed Quitters Stop Smoking Plan

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

Goal: To increase the abstinence rate of smokers over the age of 18 through a supplemental, online, tailored smoking cessation program.

Impact: The Committed Quitters Stop Smoking Plan has been successful at increasing the abstinence rate for smokers enrolled in the plan. Abstinence was higher for enrollees of the plan after 28 days and after 10-weeks.

Wheels that Care (Kansas City, MO)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation, Adults, Older Adults

Goal: Shepherd's Center Central is a local leader in the regional effort to ensure that all people can age successfully with dignity, security, and respect.

Impact: The Wheels that Care program helped 77 older adults attend their necessary appointments and maintain their independence through 1,550 hours of travel time to and from participants' homes and their appointments.

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.