Strategies

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

163 Strategies
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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

Competitive pricing for healthy foods

Assign higher costs to non-nutritious foods than nutritious foods via incentives, subsidies, or price discounts for healthy foods and beverages or disincentives or price increases for unhealthy choices

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Diet and Exercise

Complete Streets & streetscape design initiatives

Enhance streetscapes with greater sidewalk coverage and walkway connectivity, street crossing safety features, traffic calming measures, and other design elements

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Housing and Transit
  • Diet and Exercise

Composting

Use aerobic, natural decomposition to divert food and yard waste from landfills and create a nutrient-rich soil amendment product on an individual or large scale

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Air and Water Quality

Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP)

Support the federal-state partnership that pays participating landowners an annual rental rate for removing environmentally sensitive land from production and introducing conservation practices on the land.

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Air and Water Quality

Conservation tillage practices

Encourage methods of soil cultivation that keep at least one-third of cultivated soil covered with the previous year’s crop residue (e.g., mulch till, ridge till, strip till, or no-till)

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Air and Water Quality

Designated driver promotion programs

Encourage use of designated drivers via population-based mass media campaigns, incentive programs based in drinking establishments, and other efforts

Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence
  • Alcohol and Drug Use

Dram shop liability laws

Hold alcohol retailers legally responsible for injuries or damage caused by providing alcohol to intoxicated or underage customers; also called commercial host liability laws

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Alcohol and Drug Use

Drink special restrictions

Limit or ban alcohol establishments from serving alcohol at a reduced price as part of promotions; also called happy hour restrictions

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Alcohol and Drug Use

Drug courts

Use specialized courts to offer criminal offenders with drug dependency problems an alternative to adjudication or incarceration

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety
  • Alcohol and Drug Use