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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.

Practices that were submitted by local partners are listed first and will have a green box below them that indicates they are local. Users can also use the search features to find promising practices from across the country.

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A Text Message-Based Intervention for Weight Loss (San Diego County, CA)

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

Goal: To reduce weight in overweight and obese patients using mobile-based text and multimedia messaging.

Impact: At the end of a 4-month period, participants in the text-message based intervention showed greater weight loss than the control group.

Active Choices (San Francisco)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of this promising practice is to increase physical activity in a diverse older adult population.

Impact: Participants in the Active Choices program showed significant increases in physical activity and a greater satisfaction with their body appearance and function. Participants of the program also showed decreases in their BMI.

Baby & Me - Tobacco Free (Chautauqua County, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Women

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the rate of pregnant women who smoke in Chautauqua County.

Behavior Management Through Adventure

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

Goal: The goal of Behavior Management through Adventure is to address the needs of at-risk youth in therapeutic settings.

Impact: Behavior Management Through Adventure was successful in lowering rearrest rates, decreasing the time period from release until rearrest, improving depression symptoms, increasing family self-concept, and lowering social introversion.

Blues Program (Cognitive Behavioral Group Depression Intervention)

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

Goal: To significantly reduce depressive symptoms and to reduce the rates of future major depressive disorder onset among adolescents.

Impact: The Blues Program has been shown to decrease depressive symptoms, decrease rates of major depression onset, decrease rates of substance use, and increase factors that are protective against depression.

Car Seat Program (Washington County, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to increase the proper usage of child safety seats in Washington County, NY.

Chicago Housing Health Partnership (Cook)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Chicago Housing Health Partnership is to use tailored case management to place chronically medically ill homeless individuals in stable, long-term housing and facilitate access to medical services.

Colorectal Web (Michigan)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults

Goal: The goal of the Colorectal Web interactive website is to promote colorectal cancer screening.

Impact: Colorectal Web is more effective than a standard colorectal cancer website at prompting previously unscreened individuals to choose a preferred colorectal cancer screening test and to be screened for colorectal cancer.

Connecting Partners through the Community Information Exchange (San Diego, CA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality

Goal: Improve care coordination for vulnerable patients through an online platform.

Impact: Among clients enrolled in the CIE, participants experienced a reduced number of emergency medical services trips and increased stable housing rates.

Dental Caries (Cavities): School-Based Dental Sealant Delivery Programs

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Oral Health

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends school-based programs to deliver dental sealants and prevent dental caries (tooth decay) among children.

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.
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