The Guide to Community Preventive Services (Community Guide) summarizes what is known about the effectiveness, economic efficiency, and feasibility of interventions to promote community health and prevent disease. It helps to answer questions like how to motivate women to have regular mammograms or what strategies work best in helping people become more physically active. The Guide is developed by the non-federal Task Force on Community Preventive Services, whose members are appointed by the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Task Force makes recommendations for the use of public health interventions based on the evidence from systematic scientific reviews of published studies. The findings from the reviews are published in peer-reviewed journals, in printed book form, and made available on the Community Guide's website, http://thecommunityguide.org.

Topics covered coordinate with Healthy People 2010 objectives, tackling risk behaviors related to the largest burden of disease; providing guidance on ways to reduce disease, injury, and addressing social challenges. To date, the Task Force has published over 100 findings and provided evidence-based recommendations for interventions such as reducing the incidence of cancer, improving oral health, and increasing physical activity. Other topics are currently under development including alcohol abuse prevention and health promotion programs at the worksite.

Click on a topic to see what works and does not work for a particular health problem. For example, click on "Tobacco" to view systematic reviews and recommendations to reduce and prevent tobacco use. Each intervention reviewed is given a grade: "Recommended," "Insufficient Evidence," or "Recommend Against". Recommendations are based on the strength of the evidence. A determination of "Insufficient Evidence" does not mean the intervention does not work, but means that more research is needed to determine whether or not the intervention is effective. This can be especially useful to researchers when writing grant proposals.

The Community Guide helps public health professionals to develop health programs and to demonstrate accountability when making funding requests, so that money is spent on what has been shown to work. It is also a helpful tool for legislators and policy makers to support legislation and policy such as community water fluoridation. The Guide to Community Preventive Services can be accessed from Lamar Soutter Library's Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health website at http://library.umassmed.edu/ebpph.

If you any questions or ideas for public health outreach in the region, I would love to hear from you. I can be reached at 508-856-2085 or email Hathy.Simpson@umassmed.edu.

Hathy Simpson, MPH
Public Health Coordinator