Interventions Changing the Context of Health Conditions

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This page highlights the initiatives and results of seven community-wide interventions identified in HI-5 that are working to change the context of health conditions and make healthy choices easier.

Access to Clean Syringes

  • Policies that support access to clean needles and syringes allow pharmacies to sell them without prescriptions and/or public health departments to authorize and conduct programs distributing clean needles and syringes and safely disposing of used ones.
  • Evidence demonstrates that these policies, laws, and regulations are associated with reductions in the prevalence and incidence of HIV and HCV among persons who inject drugs.

Motorcycle Injury Prevention

  • Universal motorcycle helmet laws require all motorcycle riders, both drivers and passengers, to wear a helmet when riding on public roads.
  • States with universal laws consistently experience higher rates of helmet use and lower rates of motorcycle-related deaths and injuries.

Multi-component Worksite Obesity Prevention

  • Strategies at the workplace include
    • Information and education
    • Behavioral and social strategies
    • Environmental components
    • Financial incentives.
  • According to the results of a systematic review of a large number of studies
    • Worksite obesity prevention programs are associated with reductions in BMI
    • Support weight loss among employees.

Pricing Strategies for Alcohol Products

  • Evidence shows that raising the price of alcohol products is associated with reductions in
    • alcohol consumption
    • related harms, including
      • sexual violence
      • motor vehicle crashes and fatalities.

Safe Routes of School (SRTS)

Safe Routes of School (SRTS)

  • A comprehensive approach that encourages students and their families to walk, bike, or use other forms of active transportation to commute to and from school.
  • Combines programmatic approaches like
    • bicycle safety education
    • walking school buses
    • increased traffic enforcement with infrastructure improvements such as sidewalks, crosswalks, and lighting to ensure safe conditions for walking and biking.
  • SRTS is associated with increases in the number of students who walk and bike to and from school.
  • SRTS reduces the risk of injury from traffic collisions involving pedestrians and bicyclists.

School-based Programs to Increase Physical Activity

  • Goal is to increase physical activity during the times children are on school grounds before, during, and after classes.
  • Programs can
    • Expand and enhance existing physical education programs
    • Incorporate physical activities into academic classroom settings.
  • Evidence demonstrates that these programs are associated with
    • Increases in student physical activity
    • Have positive effects on BMI and obesity prevention.

School-Based Violence Prevention

  • Universal school-based violence prevention programs provide
    • Students and school staff with information about violence
    • Change how youth think and feel about violence
    • Enhance interpersonal and emotional skills such as
      • communication and problem-solving
      • empathy
      • conflict management.
  • These approaches are typically delivered to all students in a particular grade or school.
  • A systematic review found that universal school-based violence prevention programs were associated with reductions in
    • youth violence in all types of school environments, regardless of grade level and socioeconomic status
    • crime rate
    • predominant race/ethnicity of students.
  • Evidence shows specific programs have been associated with
    • reductions in delinquency, alcohol and substance abuse
    • Improvements in academic performance.

Tobacco Control Interventions

  • Effective tobacco control interventions include
    • tobacco price increases
    • high-impact anti-tobacco mass media campaigns
    • comprehensive smoke-free laws.
  • Evidence has shown a 20 percent increase in the unit price of tobacco can
    • reduce the number of young people who started smoking
    • increase quitting among young people and adults ages 30 and older
    • reduce tobacco use and demand.

High-impact anti-tobacco mass-media campaigns, targeting large audiences through television and radio broadcasts, print media (e.g., newspaper), and digital media to change knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors regarding tobacco, have

  • shown to reduce adult tobacco use
  • promote tobacco cessation
  • prevent tobacco use initiation among youth.

Comprehensive smoke-free laws that prohibit smoking in all indoor areas of workplaces, bars, and restaurants are associated with

  • reductions in exposure to secondhand smoke
  • improvements in short and long-term health outcomes, including reduced hospitalizations for asthma and heart attacks.