Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #114860

Heather Hesketh, MPP¹, Melanie Besculides, DrPH¹, Ronette Briefel, DrPH, RD², Julie C. Will, PhD³, Rosanne Farris, PhD, RD⁴, Karen Gregory-Mercado, PhD³, and Pamela Winston, PhD⁵. (1) Mathematica Policy Research, Inc, 600 Maryland Avenue, SW, Suite 550, Washington, DC 20024, 202-484-4680, hhesketh@mathematica-mpr.com, (2) Mathematica Policy Research, 600 Maryland Avenue, SW, Suite 550, Washington, DC 20024, (3) Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, Mailstop K-26, Atlanta, GA 30341, (4) Division of Adult and Community Health, Cardiovascular Health Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway NE, Mailstop K-47, Atlanta, GA 30341, (5) The Urban Institute, 2100 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037

Practitioners and policymakers stress the importance of implementing best practices in public health programs, recognizing that effective programs hold promise of reducing health disparities and promoting health. However, implementing best practices is a challenge because recommendations are often described vaguely or are infeasible to implement in real-world settings. An alternative strategy is to identify best practices in currently operating public health programs and disseminate detailed guidance on how to replicate these practices. Well-Integrated Screening and Evaluation for Women Across the Nation (WISEWOMAN), a demonstration program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that provides chronic disease risk factor screening and lifestyle interventions for uninsured women in midlife, is using this alternative strategy to identify and disseminate best practices in its WISEWOMAN Best Practices Study. This presentation will describe the study's methods and preliminary findings, and will inform community health practitioners and policymakers who are interested in assessing and disseminating best practices in their public health programs.

This study uses existing program performance data reported bi-annually by sites to identify high- and low-performing local sites within selected state/tribal projects. Researchers then visit each selected site to conduct interviews with staff, focus groups with program participants, and observations of lifestyle interventions. By consistently using these methods, standard and detailed descriptive information on successful practices used to deliver lifestyle interventions is gathered. A participatory approach is used to ensure that data collection is not overly burdensome for site staff and that the resulting products are useful.

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