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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: Targeted Vaccinations: Provider Reminders (USA)

CDC

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

Goal: The goal of the programs is to increase vaccination coverage of patients through reminders to providers and other health care professionals.

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends provider reminder interventions based on strong evidence of effectiveness in improving vaccination coverage:

-In adults, adolescents, and children
-When used alone or with additional components
-Across a range of intervention characteristics (e.g., computerized or simple reminders, checklists or flowcharts)
-In a range of settings and populations

CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Universally Recommended Vaccinations: Home Visits to Increase Vaccination Rates (USA)

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Families

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.

Centering Pregnancy Plus Program (USA)

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

Goal: The Centering Pregnancy Plus Project aims to reduce risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and improve health outcomes for young pregnant women, aged 14-21.

Impact: Facilitated group discussions promoting condom use among young women can increase condom use among participants.

Choosing Life: Empowerment, Actions, Results (CLEAR) (USA)

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

Goal: The goal of the CLEAR intervention is to empower HIV-positive youth to reduce risk behaviors and improve mental and physical health.

Commit to Quit (USA)

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

Goal: The goal of Commit to Quit is to help female smokers quit smoking through group programming and exercise.

Common Sense Parenting (CSP) (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families

Goal: The goal of Common Sense Parenting is to develop or enhance parenting skills.

Impact: Results from the Common Sense Parenting program indicated improvement in child behavior, parent attitudes, family satisfaction and parent problem-solving ability.

Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH) (USA)

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

Goal: The goal of Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) is to improve nutrition, increase physical activity, and reduce obesity in preschool, elementary, and middle school aged children.

Impact: CATCH is successful in improving participants' diet and physical activity, and the results lasted three years after participation.

Cultivando la Salud (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Adults, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of Cultivando la Salud is to increase breast and cervical cancer screening among low-income Hispanic women.

Drug User Intervention Trial (DUIT) (USA)

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

Goal: The goal of this peer-education intervention is to reduce injection risk behaviors for HIV and hepatitis C virus infection in young injection drug users.

Early Literacy Skills Builder (ELSB) (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Rural

Goal: The goal of ELSB is to help moderately to severely disabled children develop the skills and behaviors they need to succeed in a standard reading program.

Impact: ELSB demonstrates that reading skills curriculum adapted to alternative instructional needs of cognitively disabled children can more effectively improve literacy as compared to sight-word-only programs.

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.