Strategies

What Works for Health includes evidence-informed strategies to create communities where everyone can thrive.

25 Strategies
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Activity programs for older adults

Offer group educational, social, creative, musical, or physical activities that promote social interactions, regular attendance, and community involvement among older adults

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Diet and Exercise
  • Family and Social Support

College-based obesity prevention educational interventions

Support multi-component educational interventions for college students that address nutrition, physical activity, and healthy weight management; often with environmental modifications

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Diet and Exercise

Consumer participation in health care governance

Involve consumers in health care governance via roles on governing boards, advisory committees, or shorter-term special projects

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Quality of Care

Cross-age youth peer mentoring

Establish an ongoing relationship between an older youth or young adult and a younger child or adolescent, usually an elementary or middle school student

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Family and Social Support

Debt advice for tenants with unpaid rent

Offer debt advice from trained providers to tenants with unpaid, overdue rent to help repay debt and increase financial literacy

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Income
  • Housing and Transit

Exercise prescriptions

Provide patients with prescriptions for exercise plans, often accompanied by progress checks at office visits, counseling, activity logs, and exercise testing

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Diet and Exercise

Extracurricular activities for social engagement

Support organized social, art, or physical activities for school-aged youth outside of the school time

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Family and Social Support

Financial rewards for employee healthy behavior

Offer payments, credits toward health insurance premiums, or other financial rewards to encourage employees to lose weight, eat more healthily, quit smoking, engage in physical activity, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Diet and Exercise

Health literacy interventions

Increase patients’ health-related knowledge via efforts to simplify health education materials, improve patient-provider communication, and increase overall literacy

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Access to Care
  • Quality of Care

Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8)

Provide eligible families with low and very low incomes with vouchers to help cover the costs of rental housing; also called Section 8

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Housing and Transit