Applying comparative effectiveness research to public and population health initiatives

Comparative effectiveness research to date has focused primarily on the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and injuries in individuals. Yet the greatest drivers of people's overall health are found in their social and physical environments. We recommend that the comparative effectiveness research agenda focus on the public health issues responsible for the greatest overall illness and death levels, such as programs to increase high school graduation rates, which are strongly associated with improvements in long-term illness and death rates. In so doing, the agenda should spotlight efforts to address widely recognized social and environmental determinants of health, such as improving access to early childhood development programs and education, as well as interventions aimed at affecting climate change and addressing behavioral risk factors such as smoking. We also urge federal health agencies to invest in further development of methods to compare public health interventions and to use those methods to conduct the studies.