The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has released its “Ninth Annual Report to Congress on High-Priority Evidence Gaps for Clinical Preventive Services.”
In this annual report, the USPSTF highlights research gaps from its recent recommendations related to mental illness, substance use, and violence prevention. These important topics affect the health and well-being of many Americans. The report calls for more high-quality research to understand these complex health issues and how clinicians can meaningfully assist their patients in preventing them.
Topics highlighted in the report include:
Mental Health and Substance Use
- Perinatal Depression: Preventive Interventions
- Unhealthy Alcohol Use in Adolescents and Adults: Screening and Behavioral Counseling Interventions
- Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation in Children and Adolescents: Primary Care Interventions
- Illicit Drug Use, Including Nonmedical Use of Prescription Drug Use in Adolescents and Adults: Screening by Asking About Drug Use
Violence Prevention
- Intimate Partner Violence, Elder Abuse, and Abuse of Vulnerable Adults: Screening
- Child Maltreatment: Interventions
Future research can help fill gaps in these areas and may result in important new recommendations that will help to improve the health of Americans. The USPSTF hopes that identifying evidence gaps and highlighting them as research priorities will inspire public and private researchers to collaborate and target their efforts to generate new knowledge and address these important health issues.
Click here to read the complete USPSTF report.
