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Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
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Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis
In an effort to help build the evidence base around social determinants of health (SDOH), the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) engaged RAND in a project to evaluate the current evidence from programs and policies targeting SDOH and identify research questions, data sources, and data gaps. RAND used a multi-methods approach that included an environmental scan of the published and gray literature of SDOH interventions; key informant interviews with subject matter experts; and a convening of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agencies and operating divisions to review the results of the environmental scan and offer insights on findings.
Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
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Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis
This systematic review examines COVID-19 literature on infections, hospitalizations, or deaths by race and ethnicity in the United States. Results found that Black and Hispanic populations experience higher rates of COVID-19 infection and COVID-19 related mortality, but similar rates of case fatality.
Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
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Summary Report/Recommendations, Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis
This report discusses a scoping review conducted to identify social determinants of health (SDOH) that are risk factors for, or associated with outcomes of, COVID-19, and to understand the definitions, characteristics, and measures of SDOH data elements as they were used in studies analyzing statistical associations with the risk for COVID-19 infection and COVID-19-related outcomes in the United States. The granular evidence provided by the scoping review findings calls for the standardization of SDOH data across health care, public health, and research.
Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
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Commentary
The authors discuss the need for a formal evaluation of the health equity impact of a new intervention, as these evaluations are hardly ever performed as part of a health technology assessment to understand its value. An evidence-based quantitative assessment of the health equity impact can help decision makers develop coverage policies, program designs, and quality initiatives focused on optimizing both total health and health equity, given the treatment options available. The authors outline the conceptual basis of how a new intervention can impact health equity and adopt distributional cost-effectiveness analysis based on decision-analytic models to assess this quantitatively, using a newly FDA-approved drug for Alzheimer’s disease (aducanumab) as an example.
Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
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Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis
This article details a systematic review of current literature sources to identify how the Latinx community experiences disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The review found literature using population data that showed policies impacting access to health insurance, health care, sick leave, childcare, and historic wage disparities remain consequential in perpetuating existing disparities. A review of the results of all studies selected for the review is available within the article.
Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
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Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis
There are widespread concerns that ethnic minorities and migrants may have inadequate access to COVID-19 vaccines. Improving vaccine uptake among these vulnerable groups is important towards controlling the spread of COVID-19 and reducing unnecessary mortality. The data from this systematic review shows that low confidence in COVID-19 vaccines among Black ethnic minorities driven by mistrust and safety concerns led to high vaccine hesitancy in this group. For migrants, convenience factors such as language barriers, fear of deportation, and reduced physical access to COVID-19 vaccines. Building trust, reducing physical barriers and improving communication transparency about vaccine development through healthcare workers, and religious and community leaders can improve access and facilitate uptake of the COVID-19 vaccines among ethnic minority and migrant communities.
Novel Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and are in the process of generating evidence of effectiveness or may not yet be tested.
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Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis
Structural inequality during the pandemic has likely compounded health care access barriers for low-income individuals and people of color, who face not only disproportionate health risks, but also greater difficulty in transportation access and heightened economic hardship due to COVID-19. Partnerships between health and transportation systems hold promise for jointly addressing disparities in health- and transportation-related challenges, but are largely limited to Medicaid-enrolled patients. Findings of this study suggest that transportation and health care providers should look for additional strategies to ensure that transportation access is not a reason for delayed medical care during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Transportation stakeholders need to collaborate to increase access to transportation services. This paper focused on specific health care needs including dialysis, prenatal care, cancer treatment, mental-health and substance use treatment, and health care for people with disabilities.
Best Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes when implemented in multiple real-life settings, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities.
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Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis
This article presents a meta-analysis of the literature related to masking and personal protective equipment policies during the COVID-19 pandemic using PROGRESS-Plus, an equity framework. The included literature was assessed using the PROGRESS-Plus equity framework to determine the extent to which equity was considered during policy development. Overall, 212 policy documents were reviewed as part of this analysis, and only two out of the 212 included the concept of equity or disparity in the policy.
Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
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Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis
This article discusses some of the similarities between the COVID-19 pandemic and other disasters to inform the development of mental health interventions in crisis settings. Drawing from interventions to provide mental health care during disasters, the authors outline evidence-based practices for multiple crisis settings, including peer-support interventions, skills-building interventions, and online interventions. The goal of these approaches is to increase access to mental health-focused interventions in times of stress and in times where mental health services may be difficult to access, with the goal of preventing or alleviating distress.
Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
RELEASE DATE:
Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis
This review summarizes the factors contributing to COVID-19 inequities among immigrant communities. The review concludes with the overarching recommendation of engaging and empowering immigrant communities. Facilitating factors to address health inequities in this population include providing linguistically appropriate services, addressing poverty, and ensuring undocumented immigrants have access to public benefits.