Copy editors: Jennifer Kolker, MPH, Co-Principal Investigator, Pennsylvania Public Health Training Center; Kurt Holliday, Communications Specialist, Pennsylvania Public Health Training Center
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| www.thecommunityguide.org |
- Building a public health program or developing policy?
- Considering research to close a gap in an area of need?
The Guide to Community Preventive Services (Community Guide), a collection of evidence-based findings and recommendations grounded in systematic reviews, is a useful tool to inform public health activities. Development of the guide is overseen by the Community Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force), renowned for its expertise in public health research, practice, prevention, and policy.
The Community Guide informs public health program and policy development as well as priorities for funding by providing descriptive information, estimated costs, and potential return on investment of community preventive services, programs, and policies that have been proven to be effective. Findings and recommendations focus on a broad range of topics, including adolescent health, asthma, birth defects, chronic disease, emergency preparedness, health equity, mental health, oral health, tobacco, violence, and worksite health promotion. Public health practitioners based at state and local health departments; board of health members, policymakers and legislators, health plans, hospital and their community advisory groups, educators and school administrators, city and county planners, social service agencies and organizations, and clinicians and community health centers use the Community Guide to address public health issues.
The findings and recommendations are based on evidence from systematic reviews found in the scientific literature. The reviews evaluate the evidence by:
- Analyzing all available evidence on what works to promote health and prevent disease, injury, and disability;
- Assessing the economic benefits of the interventions found to be effective; and
- Identifying where more evidence is needed.
The Community Guide is in the public domain and available online at www.thecommunityguide.org. Contact us at paphtc@pitt.edu (Western PA) or paphtc@drexel.edu (Eastern PA) if you need help developing public health programs or policies.
