Health Science

Cochrane Consumers and Communication Review Group

Resource Bank part 1: Illness Prevention & Health Promotion

Includes those interventions where the purpose is to prevent a disease or occurence, or to promote healthier choices. It includes:

• Psychosocial interventions;
• Educational interventions;
• Informational interventions;
• Community/population-based interventions.

Readers interested in these topics should also visit the Cochrane Health Promotion and Public Health Field's website.

People in countries with free access can view the full text of all reviews on The Cochrane Library.

COMPLETED REVIEWS

• Abstinence-only programs for HIV infection prevention in high-income countries.
• Abstinence-plus programs for HIV infection prevention in high-income countries.
• Area-wide traffic calming for preventing traffic related injuries.
• Biomedical risk assessment as an aid for smoking cessation.
• Cognitive-behavioural interventions for preventing youth gang involvement for children and young people (7-16)
• Community-based interventions for the prevention of burns and scalds in children.
• Community interventions for preventing smoking in young people.
• Community interventions for reducing smoking among adults.
• Community pharmacy personnel interventions for smoking cessation.
• Competitions and incentives for smoking cessation.
• Dietary advice for the prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus in adults (NEW)
• Dietary advice for reducing cardiovascular risk.
• Dietary advice in pregnancy for preventing gestational diabetes mellitus.
• Diet or exercise, or both, for weight reduction in women after childbirth.
• Early developmental intervention programs post hospital discharge to prevent motor and cognitive impairments in preterm infants.
• Effectiveness of brief alcohol interventions in primary care populations.
• Enhancing partner support to improve smoking cessation.
• Exercise or exercise and diet for preventing type 2 diabetes mellitus (NEW).
• Family and carer smoking control programmes for reducing children's exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.
• Family and parenting interventions in children and adolescents with conduct disorder and delinquency aged 10-17.
• Family-based programmes for preventing smoking by children and adolescents.
• Graduated driver licensing for reducing motor vehicle crashes among young drivers.
• Group-based parent-training programmes for improving emotional and behavioural adjustment in 0-3 year old children.
• Group behaviour therapy programmes for smoking cessation.
• Hand washing for preventing diarrhoea.
• Healthcare financing systems for increasing the use of tobacco dependence treatment.

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• Home safety education and provision of safety equipment for injury prevention.
• Household interventions for prevention of domestic lead exposure in children.
• Impact of tobacco advertising and promotion on increasing adolescent smoking behaviours.
• Individual and group-based parenting programmes for improving psychosocial outcomes for teenage parents and their children.
• Individual and group-based parenting programmes for the treatment of physical child abuse and neglect.
• Interventions for encouraging sexual lifestyles and behaviours intended to prevent cervical cancer.
• Interventions for preventing eating disorders in children and adolescents.
• Interventions for preventing falls in elderly people.
• Interventions for preventing injuries in problem drinkers.
• Interventions for preventing injuries in the agricultural industry.
• Interventions for preventing injuries in the construction industry.
• Interventions for preventing obesity in children.
• Interventions for preventing tobacco sales to minors.
• Interventions for preventing tobacco smoking in public places.
• Interventions for prevention of drug use by young people delivered in non-school settings.
• Interventions for promoting booster seat use in four to eight year olds traveling in motor vehicles.
• Interventions for promoting physical activity.
• Interventions for promoting smoke alarm ownership and function.
• Interventions for smoking cessation in hospitalised patients.
• Interventions for the interruption or reduction of the spread of respiratory viruses.
• Interventions for tobacco cessation in the dental setting.

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• Interventions implemented through sporting organisations for increasing participation in sport.
• Interventions in the alcohol server setting for preventing injuries.
• Interventions in the workplace to support breastfeeding for women in employment.
• Interventions to modify sexual risk behaviors for preventing HIV infection in men who have sex with men.
• Interventions to promote the wearing of hearing protection.
• Interventions to reduce harm from continued tobacco use.
• Mass media interventions for preventing smoking in young people.
• Mass media interventions for promoting HIV testing.
• Mass media interventions for smoking cessation in adults.
• Material manual handling advice and assistive devices for preventing and treating back pain in workers.
• Modification of the home environment for the reduction of injuries.
• Multiple risk factor interventions for primary prevention of coronary heart disease.
• Non-legislative interventions for the promotion of cycle helmet wearing by children.
• Nursing interventions for smoking cessation.
• Parenting interventions for the prevention of unintentional injuries in childhood.
• Parent-training programmes for improving maternal psychosocial health.
• Policy interventions implemented through sporting organisations for promoting healthy behaviour change.
• Population-based interventions for reducing sexually transmitted infections, including HIV infection.
• Population-based interventions for the prevention of fall-related injuries in older people.
• Post-licence driver education for the prevention of road traffic crashes.
• Preconception counselling for women with epilepsy to reduce adverse pregnancy outcome (NEW).
• Preventing occupational stress in healthcare workers.
• Primary prevention for alcohol misuse in young people.
• Psychological and/or educational interventions for the prevention of depression in children and adolescents.
• Psychosocial interventions for prevention of psychological disorders in law enforcement officers (NEW).
• Quit and Win contests for smoking cessation.

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• Recall intervals for oral health in primary care patients.
• Red-light cameras for the prevention of road traffic crashes.
• Relapse prevention interventions for smoking cessation.
• Safety education of pedestrians for injury prevention.
• “Scared Straight" and other juvenile awareness programs for preventing juvenile delinquency.
• School-based driver education for the prevention of traffic crashes.
• School-based education programmes for the prevention of child sexual abuse.
• School-based secondary prevention programmes for preventing violence.
• School-based prevention for illicit drugs' use.
• School-based programmes for preventing smoking.
• Strategies for communicating contraceptive effectiveness.
• Telephone counselling for smoking cessation.
• The 'WHO Safe Communities' model for the prevention of injury in whole populations.
• Tobacco cessation interventions for young people.
• Workplace interventions for smoking cessation.

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UPCOMING REVIEWS: PROTOCOLS

• Advocacy interventions to reduce or eliminate violence and promote the physical and psychosocial well-being of women who experience intimate partner abuse.
• Alternatives to inpatient mental health care for children and young people.
• Behavioral interventions for decreasing HIV infection in racial and ethnic minorities in high-income economies.
• Behavioural interventions for preventing hepatitis B and/or C.
• Behavioral interventions for reducing HIV infection in employees in occupational settings.
• Behavioral interventions to reduce the transmission of HIV infection among commercial sex workers and their clients in developed countries.
• Behavioral interventions to reduce the transmission of HIV infection among commercial sex workers and their clients in developing countries.
• Bicycle skills training for preventing bicycle-related injuries in children and young people.
• Brief interventions for heavy alcohol users admitted to general hospital wards.
• Child-resistant containers for preventing childhood poisoning.
• Counseling and testing for preventing HIV infection.
• Debriefing for the prevention of psychological trauma in women following childbirth.
• Education of children and adolescents for preventing dog bite injuries.
• Educational interventions for the prevention of eye injuries.
• Educational interventions for healthcare professionals to prevent pressure ulcers.
• Educational programmes for skin cancer prevention.
• Families and Schools Together (FAST) for improving outcomes of school-aged children and their families.

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• Harm reduction interventions to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission in involuntary detainees.
• Health examination for preventing occupational injuries and disease in workers (NEW).
• Increasing motorcycle and rider conspicuity for preventing death and injury in motorcyclists.
• In-service training in the care of the seriously ill newborn or child for health professionals in developing countries
• Interactive computer-based interventions for sexual health promotion.
• Internet-based interventions for smoking cessation.
• Interventions for educating traditional healers about STD and HIV medicine.
• Interventions for enhancing the skills of consumers to find, evaluate and use online health information.
• Interventions for heartburn in pregnancy.
• Interventions for improving the psychosocial wellbeing of children affected by HIV/AIDS.
• Interventions for preventing excessive weight gain during pregnancy.
• Interventions for preventing falls in older people living in the community.
• Interventions for increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in pre-school children.
• Interventions for preventing falls in older people in residential care facilities and hospitals.
• Interventions for preventing hamstring injuries.
• Interventions for preventing unintended pregnancies among adolescents.
• Interventions for reducing the use of baby walkers.
• Interventions for reduction of stigma in people with HIV/AIDS.
• Interventions for the prevention of relationship and dating violence in adolescents and young people.
• Interventions in the clinical setting for preventing unintentional injuries among children and teenagers aged 0-19 years.
• Interventions to modify drug-related risk behaviors for preventing HIV infection in drug users.
• Interventions to modify sexual risk behaviors for preventing HIV infection in street children and young people in developed countries.

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• Interventions to modify sexual risk behaviors for preventing HIV infection in street children and youth people in developing countries.
• Kinship care for the safety, permanency, and well-being of children removed from the home for maltreatment.  
• Mobile phone-based interventions for smoking cessation.
• Motivational interviewing for smoking cessation.
• Motivational interviewing for the prevention of alcohol misuse in young people.
• Motorcycle helmet legislation for preventing injuries in motorcyclists.
• Motorcycle rider training for preventing road traffic crashes.
• One-to-one dietary interventions undertaken in a dental setting for a change in dietary behaviour and the prevention of dental caries and erosion.
• Parenting programmes for improving the parenting skills and outcomes for incarcerated parents and their children.
• Prevention of percutaneous injuries with risk of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, or other viral infections for health-care workers.
• Prevention of suicide and suicidal behaviour in adolescents (NEW).
• Primary prevention interventions for reducing school violence.
• Psychosocial interventions for the reduction of injection and sexual risk behaviour for preventing HIV in drug users.
• Risk scoring for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease.
• School-based interventions to postpone sexual intercourse and promote condom use among adolescents.
• Screening women for intimate partner violence in health care settings.
• Smoking bans for reducing smoking prevalence and tobacco consumption.
• Social and lifestyle interventions for preventing low birth weight in South Asians.
• Social norms interventions to reduce alcohol misuse in University or College students.
• Stage-based interventions for smoking cessation.
• Street lighting for preventing road traffic injuries.
• Structural and community-level interventions for increasing condom use to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
• Supplementary feeding with nutritional education for caregivers for promoting growth and development in young children in developing countries.
• Theory-based interventions for contraception (NEW).
• Vision screening of older drivers for preventing road traffic injuries and fatalities.    
• Workplace interventions for preventing work disability.

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Return to Resource Bank Index

Continue to Resource Bank Part 2: Interventions for the maintenance of health of people with chronic illness