Best Practices and Evidence-Based Interventions

Databases and Compendium of Interventions

ACHA Guidelines and Recommendations

The following guidelines and recommendations are available to download in pdf format. Please also see ACHA’s Position Statements.

Addressing Sexual and Relationship Violence on College and University Campuses
Best Practices for Sensitive Exams
Cultural Competency Statement
Drug Education and Testing of Student Athletes
Emergency Planning Guidelines for Campus Health Services: An All-Hazards Approach
General Statement of Ethical Principles and Guidelines
Guidelines for Hiring Health Promotion Professionals in Higher Education
HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis
Immunization Recommendations for College Students
Opioid Prescribing in College Health
Outsourcing of College Health Programs: Discussion Points
Position Statement on Tobacco on College and University Campuses
Sanctions Procedure
Scope of Practice for the Registered Nurse in College Health
Standards of Practice for Health Promotion in Higher Education
Standards for Student Health Insurance Coverage
Trans-Inclusive College Health Programs
Tuberculosis Screening and Targeted Testing of College and University Students
White Paper: Considerations for Integration of Counseling and Health Services on College and University Campuses

The Community Guide

The Guide to Community Preventive Services (The Community Guide) is a collection of evidence-based findings of the Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF). It is a resource to help you select interventions to improve health and prevent disease in your state, community, community organization, business, health care organization, or school.

CDC Community Health Improvement (CHI) Navigator Database of Interventions

The CDC Community Health Improvement (CHI) Navigator Database of Interventions is a website for people who lead or participate in CHI work within hospitals and health systems, public health agencies, and other community organizations. It is a one-stop-shop that offers community stakeholders expert-vetted tools and resources for:

Depicting visually the who, what, where, and how of improving community health
Making the case for collaborative approaches to community health improvement
Establishing and maintaining effective collaborations
Finding interventions that work for the greatest impact on health and well-being for all

Healthy People 2020 Evidence-Based Resource Tool

This tool allows you to search the database of Healthy People 2020 Evidence-Based resources.

CDC Prevention Status Reports

The CDC Prevention Status Reports (PSRs) highlight—for all 50 states and the District of Columbia—the status of public health policies and practices designed to address 10 important public health problems and concerns: Alcohol-Related Harms, Food Safety, Healthcare-Associated Infections, Heart Disease and Stroke, HIV, Motor Vehicle Injuries, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, Prescription Drug Overdose, Teen Pregnancy, and Tobacco Use.

CDC Winnable Battles

Winnable Battles are public health priorities where CDC and its partners can make significant progress in a relatively short time frame. Winnable Battles help advance the CDC Strategic Framework of ending epidemics, eliminating diseases and securing America’s preparedness and global health. Topics include antibiotic resistance, HIV elimination, opioid overdose, vaccine-preventable diseases, and viral hepatitis.

Alcohol

CollegeAIM

CollegeAIM (The College Alcohol Intervention Matrix) from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) is a new resource to help schools address harmful and underage student drinking. Developed with leading college alcohol researchers and staff, it is an easy-to-use and comprehensive tool to identify effective alcohol interventions.

HIV

CDC Effective Interventions: HIV Prevention that Works

This CDC-sponsored website is designed to support the HIV prevention workforce in the United States by providing resources and trainings informed by the best available science that can be used to implement HIV prevention interventions and strategies.

Sexual Violence

Sexual Violence on Campus: Strategies for Prevention

This technical assistance document, Sexual Violence on Campus: Strategies for Prevention combines the findings from the Think Tank and Action Planning Meetings with the best available evidence on sexual violence prevention and reflects CDC’s current thinking about how to prevent sexual violence on college and university campuses. This information is intended to be a starting place for sexual violence practitioners and their campus partners to begin planning for and implementing sexual violence prevention strategies in a college or university setting.

Shifting the Paradigm: Primary Prevention of Sexual Violence Toolkit

The American College Health Association developed the toolkit Shifting the Paradigm: Primary Prevention of Sexual Violence Toolkit to provide facts, ideas, strategies, conversation starters, and resources to everyone on campus who cares about the prevention of sexual violence. While there is a rich volume of tools, knowledge, and resources for intervention after sexual violence, the emphasis of this toolkit is to encourage prevention activities that take place before sexual violence has occurred and which create social change and shift the norms regarding sexual violence.

Social Media

CDC Social Media Tools, Guidelines & Best Practices

The use of social media tools is a powerful channel to reach target audiences with strategic, effective and user-centric health interventions. To assist in the planning, development and implementation of social media activities, CDC Social Media Tools, Guidelines & Best Practices guidelines have been developed to provide critical information on lessons learned, best practices, clearance information and security requirements. Although these guidelines have been developed for the use of these channels at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), they may be useful materials for other federal, state and local agencies as well as private organizations to reference when developing social media tools.

Vaccines and Immunizations

CDC General Best Practice Guidelines for Immunization

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends routine vaccination to prevent 17 vaccine-preventable diseases that occur in infants, children, adolescents, or adults. This report provides information for clinicians and other health care providers about concerns that commonly arise when vaccinating persons of various ages. Providers and patients must navigate numerous issues, such as the timing of each dose, screening for contraindications and precautions, the number of vaccines to be administered, the educational needs of patients and parents, and interpreting and responding to adverse events. Vaccination providers help patients understand the substantial body of (occasionally conflicting) information about vaccination.

This vaccination best practice guidance is intended for clinicians and other health care providers who vaccinate patients in varied settings, including hospitals, provider offices, pharmacies, schools, community health centers, and public health clinics.

Other Resources

Effective Health Care Program

The AHRQ Effective Health Care Program improves the quality of health care by providing the best available evidence on the outcomes, benefits and harms, and appropriateness of drugs, devices, and health care services and by helping health care professionals, patients, policymakers, and health care systems make informed health care decisions. The EHC Program achieves this goal by partnering with research centers, academic institutions, health professional societies, consumer organizations, and other stakeholders to conduct research, evidence synthesis, evidence translation, dissemination, and implementation of research findings.

Evidence-based Public Health (ASTHO)

ASTHO seeks to integrate evidence-based public health practices in all its work. Evidence-based interventions lead to more successful programs and policies, greater workforce productivity and better use of resources.

Programs That Work

The Promising Practices Network site features summaries of programs and practices that are proven to improve outcomes for children. All programs have been reviewed for quality and to ensure that they have evidence of positive effects.

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in disease prevention and evidence-based medicine. The Task Force works to improve the health of all Americans by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services.

What Works for Health (County Health Rankings)

Evidence matters. The What Works for Health tool will help you find policies and programs that are a good fit for your community’s priorities.