Research Articles Priorities Among Recommended Clinical Preventive Services

Background: Many recommended clinical preventive services are delivered at low rates. Decision-makers who wish to improve delivery rates, but face competing demands for finite resources, need information on the relative value of these services. This article describes the results of a systematic assessment of the value of clinical preventive services recommended for average-risk patients by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Methods: The assessment of services ’ value for the U.S. population was based on two dimensions: burden of disease prevented by each service and cost effectiveness. Methods were developed for measuring these criteria consistently across different types of services. A companion article describes the methods in greater detail. Each service received 1 to 5 points on each of the two dimensions, for total scores ranging from 2 to 10. Priority opportunities for improving delivery rates were determined by comparing the ranking of services with what is known of current delivery rates nationally. Results: The highest ranked services (scores of 71) with the lowest delivery rates (#50 % nationally) are providing tobacco cessation counseling to adults, screening older adults for undetected vision impairments, offering adolescents an anti-tobacco message or advice to quit