Assisting States in Considering Evidence-Based and Promising Policies to Advance Health, Well-being, and Opportunity.

Abstract

Public health professionals across the country face numerous challenges on a day-to-day basis. To identify and implement evidence-based programs, they often have to capture the attention of their busy elected or appointed supervisors and convince them of the value of their work. If elected officials want evidence that a proposed public health initiative will work during their term, the public health professional may be in a bind. Research has shown that investments in public health spending can be attributed to drops in mortality rates; however, these results often take years or even decades to materialize. During a time when the future of health reform and other federal health policy debates continue to hang in the balance of a polarized political environment, it is critically important that public health professionals and other vested stakeholders are able to articulate the benefits of health-promoting and costsaving policies that occur outside of the health care system to state decision makers. Historically speaking, state policy makers have often focused on improving health outcomes by expanding and ensuring access to high-quality health services. While the health care sector plays an important role in providing necessary care to individuals, there are a number of modifiable