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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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Northern Michigan Diabetes Initiative (Northwest Lower Michigan)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Diabetes, Children, Teens, Adults, Rural

Goal: The overall goal is to reduce the prevalence of diabetes and improve the care of people with diabetes.

Northern Michigan Diabetes Initiative: Provider Education Program (Michigan)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Rural

Goal: The overall goal is to reduce the prevalence of diabetes and improve the care of people with diabetes by improving provider education.

Impact: The results indicate that a half-day site visit with an experienced diabetologist can lead to sustained, improved glycemic and lipid control in previously-uncontrolled diabetic patients. The online iDose tool provides an easy way for healthcare providers to calculate insulin dosage.

Nurse Family Partnership (NFP): Palm Beach (West Palm Beach, FL)

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

Goal: The program has three primary goals:
1) to improve pregnancy outcomes by promoting health-related behaviors;
2) to improve child health, development and safety by promoting competent care-giving; and
3) to enhance parent life-course development by promoting pregnancy planning, educational achievement, and employment.

The program also has two secondary goals: to enhance families' material support by providing links with needed health and social services, and to promote supportive relationships among family and friends.

Impact: The Nurse Family Partnership Program has shown to improve pregnancy outcomes, improve child health and development, and increase economic self-sufficiency.

Nurse-Family Partnership

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

Goal: The program has three primary goals:
1) to improve pregnancy outcomes by promoting health-related behaviors;
2) to improve child health, development and safety by promoting competent care-giving; and
3) to enhance parent life-course development by promoting pregnancy planning, educational achievement, and employment.

The program also has two secondary goals: to enhance families’ material support by providing links with needed health and social services, and to promote supportive relationships among family and friends.

Impact: Evaluations of the program have shown that women who were visited by nurses had significantly better outcomes than those who did not in terms of measures such as maternal health, maternal life-course development, child health and safety, and adolescent measures of delinquency.

Nutrition Detectives

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

Goal: The goal of the program is to provide elementary schools with a low-cost, non-invasive curriculum to educate elementary school children on how to read nutrition labels, differentiate between marketing versus reality, and select healthier food options.

Impact: Nutrition Detectives shows that a low-cost, non-invasive educational program based around downloadable videos, presentations, and materials can improve young students' and their parents' ability to make healthier food and nutrition choices.

NYC WasteLe$$ (New York, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Urban

Goal: The goal of NYC WasteLe$$ is to promote waste prevention at businesses, agencies, schools, and at home.

Obesity: Meal or Fruit and Vegetable Snack Interventions to Increase Healthier Foods and Beverages Provided by Schools

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Weight Status

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends meal interventions and fruit and vegetable snack interventions to increase the availability of healthier foods and beverages provided by schools. This finding is based on evidence that they increase fruit and vegetable consumption and reduce or maintain the rate of obesity or overweight. Economic evidence shows that meal interventions and fruit and vegetable snack interventions are cost-effective.

Obesity: Multicomponent Interventions to Increase Availability of Healthier Foods and Beverages in Schools

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Weight Status

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends multicomponent interventions to increase availability of healthier foods and beverages in schools. This finding is based on evidence that they reduce or maintain the rate of obesity or overweight.

Obesity: Multicomponent Interventions to Increase Availability of Healthier Foods and Beverages in Schools

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Nutrition & Healthy Eating

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends multicomponent interventions to increase availability of healthier foods and beverages in schools. This finding is based on evidence that they reduce or maintain the rate of obesity or overweight.

Oregon Tobacco Prevention and Education Program (Oregon)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce tobacco use in Oregon.

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.