Putting CDC's Best Practices into practice

Background In 2007, the CDC Office on Smoking and Health (CDC-OSH) released the update of the Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs. This update presented an integrated structure and revised funding recommendations. It continues to be an important document for program managers; however, they requested more guidance on how interventions should be implemented for the state and community interventions Best Practices category. In response to this request, CDC-OSH partnered with the Center for Tobacco Policy Research at Washington University in St. Louis to develop a series of user guides for the state and community interventions category. The User Guide Series is comprised of the following guides: 1. Coalitions 2. Youth Engagement 3. Pricing Policies 4. Policy Advocacy 5. Health Equity Methods To identify topics and the most effective evidence-based methods, we performed an extensive literature review, and consulted topic-related experts and tobacco control program staff employing exemplary practices. Results The user guide series provides programs with specific guidance for determining where funding should be allocated within the Best Practices category. This series fills the information gap (e.g., how funding should be spent) between the Best Practices guidelines (e.g., how much funding programs need) and The Community Guide for Preventive Services (e.g., what programs are implementing).

Conclusion The user guides complement the Best Practices by translating the broad recommendations into practical and evidence-based strategies for state and community interventions. Other public health disciplines can also learn from the approaches highlighted in the guides to implement evidence-based and effective practices.