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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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Health Equity: Center-Based Early Childhood Education

CDC

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

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends center-based early childhood education programs (ECE) to improve educational outcomes that are associated with long-term health as well as social- and health-related outcomes. Economic evidence indicates there is a positive return on investment in early childhood education. The benefits from students' future earnings gains alone exceed program costs.

If targeted to low-income or racial and ethnic minority communities, ECE programs are likely to reduce educational achievement gaps, improve the health of these student populations, and promote health equity.

Health Leads (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality

Goal: The goal of Health Leads is to provide patients with access to various things, besides medication, that they need to improve their health.

Health Plan of San Mateo Housing Supports Pilot (San Mateo County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program was to target the housing support needs of its members with the objective of reducing institutionalization, improving quality of life, and reducing total costs of care.

Impact: The large majority of participants surveyed indicated that their quality of life was maintained or increased during the pilot and that they were satisfied with the program.

Healthier Living with Arthritis Online Workshop (USA)

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

Goal: The program is focused on reduction of pain and improvement of function for arthritis patients unable or unwilling to attend small group ASMPs, which have proven effective in changing health-related behaviors and improving health status measures.

Healthy Kids Express - Asthma Program (St. Louis, Missouri)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Teens, Families

Goal: The mission of the Healthy Kids Express Asthma Program is to provide quality asthma care and education to children with asthma and their caretakers in a school environment to work towards goals set by Healthy People 2020 and the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP).

Impact: The Healthy Kids Express Asthma Program serves approximately 600 children a year, improving inhaler technique and asthma knowledge among participants. Children enrolled in the program for two consecutive years have lower school absentee rates and hospitalizations due to asthma.

Healthy Kids Express Dental Van (St. Louis, Missouri)

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

Goal: The mission of Healthy Kids Express Dental is to improve oral healthcare in children through education on the importance of regular brushing, flossing, and using fluoride as well as through restorative treatments when necessary.

Impact: During the 2014-2015 school year, children pre-Kindergarten through 7th grade saw their average score on a dental knowledge test rise from 64.7% on the pretest to 72.1% on the posttest.

Healthy Kids Express Screening and Immunization Program (St. Louis, Missouri Metro Region)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens, Families, Urban

Goal: The mission of HKES&I is to increase access to needed healthcare for children. This is accomplished through the goal of identifying children who need further follow-up, particularly for hearing and vision problems, and to connect them to those services.

Impact: Healthy Kids Express Screening and Immunization program is successful in providing evidence based care to low-income populations and for connecting those identified with screening needs to needed follow-up care.

Healthy Kids in Healthy Homes (Kern)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: To provide children and parents with the education and resources they need to improve their health.

Healthy Parks and the Interface between State and Local Policy Change (California)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Governance, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Statewide Park Development and Community Revitalization Act is to ensure that funding for new parks and green spaces is prioritized for critically underserved and disadvantaged urban communities.

Healthy Relationships

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Women, Men

Goal: The goal of Healthy Relationships is to reduce the risk of HIV transmission by people who know they are HIV-positive by reducing the frequency with which they have unprotected sex.

Impact: Healthy Relationships seeks to develop decision making and problem making skills to reduce the risk and transmission of HIV through behavioral intervention. An intervention study resulted in significantly less unprotected intercourse and greater condom use with lower estimated HIV rates post-intervention.

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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