Session: Structured Reviews for Maximizing Public Health Strategies (Society for Prevention Research 23rd Annual Meeting)

While our knowledge of methods and resources to improve child and adolescent health through interventions has increased markedly in recent years, many trials that evaluate intervention effects are only able to give us snapshots into how outcome rates vary by particular subgroups or certain mechanisms of effects. Structured reviews allow us to assess the overall state of the field by condensing and synthesizing the information from many studies in order to determine next steps for our research agenda, as well as to provide a valuable resource for decision makers who need information available in a singular, easily accessible location. This symposium will present recent work on the use of structural reviews that include both trials that are similar primarily in the context of delivery setting and intervention target, as well as a review focused on the etiology of preventable outcomes.  We aim to call researchers to action, and discuss implications for public policy decision makers as they are faced with choosing which interventions to endorse for maximum public health impact during a time of shrinking budgets and health reform.  These reviews include a strong focus on the potential of parent or family based interventions on child and adolescent outcomes, as these interventions target not only child and adolescent behavior and cognition, but also the family environment which is part of the adolescents’ system. Speaking to this, our first presenter will review the available evidence around parent interventions’ impact on long-term child and adolescent outcomes.  The second presentation will focus on reviewing the fit of parent-based interventions for child and adolescent behavioral health conditions for delivery in or referral from primary care settings. This particular framework was chosen bearing in mind that sufficient evidence for the effectiveness of such interventions on children’s and adolescent’s conditions, such as depression, is crucial to the United States Preventive Services Task Force in determining which screening and treatment interventions are recommended for reimbursement by private insurance and Medicare with no cost sharing to patients and their families. The closing presentation brings in a policy and mental health advocate perspective with a new public health framework that urges us to consider well-established environmental influences such as toxic, chronic levels of success on adolescent mental health and physical health, and outlines a public health approach for increasing prevention. Crucially, this presentation will include a discussion on a political action plan for utilizing the available information into a public agenda focused on increasing the capacity of our public health infrastructure.