Strategies

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

45 Strategies
Clear all

Professionally trained medical interpreters

Provide interpretation services for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) in outpatient and inpatient health care settings, following training and certification

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Quality of Care

Public transportation systems

Introduce or expand transportation options that are available to the public and run on a scheduled timetable (e.g., buses, trains, ferries, rapid transit, etc.)

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Housing and Transit

Safe Routes to Schools

Promote walking and biking to school through education, incentives, and environmental changes; often called SRTS

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

Smoke-free policies for indoor areas

Implement private sector rules or public sector regulations that prohibit smoking indoors or restrict it to designated, often outdoor, areas

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Tobacco Use

Statewide comprehensive tobacco programs

Coordinate state and community-level cessation and prevention interventions and provide information on the dangers of tobacco using a combination of educational, regulatory, clinical, social, and economic strategies

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Tobacco Use

Tobacco cessation contests

Encourage participants to quit using tobacco by a set date or during a specific time period and give successful participants a chance to win financial rewards or other prizes; often called Quit & Win contests

Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence
  • Tobacco Use

Tobacco cessation therapy affordability

Reduce patients’ out-of-pocket costs for tobacco cessation therapies such as nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and cessation counseling participation

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Tobacco Use

Tobacco quitlines

Deliver phone-based counseling to tobacco users who want to quit, usually with follow-up calls proactively scheduled after initial contact

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Tobacco Use

Tobacco taxes

Increase tobacco price per unit through taxes at the federal, state, or local level

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Tobacco Use