CPSTF: A lesser known, but valuable, resource for FPs
The Community Preventive Services Task Force provides evidence-based practice interventions and related practical tools to assist in achieving health-promotion and disease-prevention goals.
Tackling controversial social issues
Public health interventions are often politically charged, and the CPSTF at times makes recommendations that, while supported by evidence, raise objections from certain groups. One example is a recommendation for “comprehensive risk reduction interventions to promote behaviors that prevent or reduce the risk of pregnancy, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).”5 These interventions may include a hierarchy of recommended behaviors that identifies abstinence as the best or preferred method, but also provides information about sexual risk reduction strategies. Abstinence-only education initiatives were rated as having insufficient evidence for effectiveness.6
Another example that falls in the controversial realm is a recommendation against “policies facilitating the transfer of juveniles from juvenile to adult criminal justice systems for the purpose of reducing violence, based on strong evidence that these laws and policies are associated with increased subsequent violent behavior among transferred youth.”7
