The Community Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force) is a panel of public health and prevention experts appointed by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its members represent a broad range of local, state, and national research, practice, and policy expertise in community preventive services, public health, health promotion, and disease prevention.
To know what programs, services, and policies are proven to protect and improve health, decision makers in communities, companies, nonprofit organizations, health systems, and at all levels of government can rely on recommendations from the Community Preventive Services Task Force. The Task Force bases its recommendations on systematic reviews of the scientific evidence on community preventive services. To date, the Task Force has published 225 evidence based reviews, findings, and recommendations (Appendix A). They are compiled in the Guide to Community Preventive Services (The Community Guide) as a reference resource for decision makers, which can be found online at www.thecommunityguide.org. Task Force recommendations provide evidence-based options from which decision makers can choose what best meets their needs; they are not mandates for compliance or spending. They include programs, services, and policies that have proven effective in a variety of settings—such as worksites, schools, health plans, faith-based institutions, communities, and states—and can be used to effect these changes:
Protect and improve population health
Reduce future demand for healthcare spending that is driven by preventable disease and disability
Increase productivity and competitiveness of the U.S. workforce
The Task Force outlines its methods, findings, products, and impact in this report, with particular attention to significant research gaps and priorities for future reviews and recommendations.