Newest Release From County Health Rankings & Roadmaps: What Works for Health

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin have announced the newest release from County Health Rankings & Roadmaps: What Works for Health, an online searchable menu of policies and programs focusing on factors that make communities healthier places to live, learn, work and play.  Because we know that evidence matters when it comes to developing and implementing solutions to problems that affect communities, each of the programs included in What Works for Health is given an evidence rating. The highest-rated programs and policies have been shown to work.

What Works for Health is easy to use. Local leaders, including coalitions and employers, can choose a health factor of interest (i.e. tobacco use, employment, access to health care, environmental quality, etc.) and browse through the evidence ratings for particular programs, policies, or system changes that address the particular health factor of interest.

Together, the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps and the new What Works for Health can give employers in a community a profile of their county’s health, guidance to take action, and information on evidence-informed strategies that can make their communities a healthier place.  What Works for Health is a collection of policies, programs and system changes that address the factors that we know affect community health. Each of these strategies is rated based on the scientific strength of the evidence used to design it.  Many communities are faced with similar challenges that we know are linked to health, including a lack of safe places for children to play, poor air quality for all residents, declining high school graduation rates, and difficulty getting health care, for example. A database of existing strategies that effectively address common community health challenges and priorities is a starting point to help leaders shape their approaches and align with coalitions and employers.