Strategies

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

14 Strategies
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Child bicycle helmet promotion programs

Promote child bicycle helmet use via bicycle safety education, media campaigns, or provision of free or subsidized helmets

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Community-based social support for physical activity

Build, strengthen, and maintain social networks that provide supportive relationships for behavior change through walking groups or other community-based interventions

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Diet and Exercise

Community-wide physical activity campaigns

Engage a variety of partners in a highly visible, multi-component effort to increase physical activity, often with efforts to address cardiovascular disease risk factors

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Diet and Exercise

Court mandated programs for perpetrators of intimate partner violence

Expand court-referred intimate partner violence offenders’ understanding of abuse, teach alternative reactions, and work to change gender role attitudes; also called batterer intervention programs (BIPs)

Evidence Rating:
Mixed Evidence
  • Community Safety

Family-based physical activity interventions

Increase family members’ support for physical activity, often via educational sessions on health, goal-setting, problem-solving, or family behavioral management

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Diet and Exercise

Health insurance enrollment outreach & support

Provide outreach and support to assist those whose employers do not offer affordable coverage, who are self-employed, or who are unemployed

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Access to Care

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

Helmets in collision sports

Use helmets to absorb, dissipate, and reduce impact forces to an athlete’s head and brain during collisions or falls

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Community Safety

Individually-adapted physical activity programs

Teach behavioral skills that can help individuals incorporate physical activity into their daily routines

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Diet and Exercise

Mental health benefits legislation

Regulate mental health insurance to increase access to mental health services, including treatment for substance use disorders

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Access to Care