Success Stories

Asthma

In implementing its home visitation program, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services used a Task Force recommendation from The Community Guide for home-based, multi-trigger, multi-component environmental interventions that support children and adolescents with asthma. CDC awarded the agency funding for a quality improvement plan, which referenced the Task Force recommendation. Within one month of implementation, the proportion of children in the program who experienced asthma-related symptoms dropped from 23% to 7%.

Cancer Screening

In rural South Carolina the risk of cancer-related death is a complex public health problem. The St. James-Santee Family Health Center launched the Black Corals program to increase cancer screening among women. The Community Guide served as a resource to help the program dramatically increase breast and cervical cancer screenings in their community.

Physical education

In Illinois, concerns of rising obesity rates led policymakers to write a plan for state standards that enhance physical education in schools based on evidence-based intervention strategies from The Community Guide. The plan requires regular fitness testing in every school, as well as curriculum development. More than 800 teachers from 300 school districts have been trained to implement the related standards.

Seat belts and child safety seats

Child safety seat use increased by 34% on the Yurok Tribe Reservation, four years after starting Buckle Up Yurok (BUY), a motor vehicle injury prevention program developed by the California Rural Indian Health Board. In 2010, the Board received a CDC grant to launch BUY. The grant required the program to use motor vehicle injury prevention strategies from The Community Guide. Program coordinator Danielle Lippert says, “The [Task Force’s] findings helped us choose interventions that we could be confident were effective.”