Framework offered for measuring community-based wellness efforts

Posted: November 3, 2012 - 12:01 am ET

An Institute of Medicine committee released a report describing a framework to estimate the value of community-based, nonclinical prevention policies and wellness strategies.

The goal of the report, called An Integrated Framework for Assessing the Value of Community-Based Prevention, is to make it easier to prevent disease, increase behaviors that improve health and well-being, slow or stop the progress of disease, and decrease disparities, all at the population level, according to a summary of the report (PDF).

The committee recommends that community-based prevention and wellness strategies account for benefits and harms in physical and mental health, community well-being, and community process; consider the resources used, comparing the benefits and harms associated with those resources; and take into account differences among communities that can affect the link between interventions and outcomes, according to the summary.

Because eight existing frameworks did not include those features, the IOM committee produced its own, which is included in the 181-page report.