Community-based interventions

The article Reconsidering Community-Based Health Promotion: Promise, Performance, and Potential by Merzel and D’Afflitti1 in this issue of the Journal makes a valuable contribution to the literature on community approaches to health promotion. The breadth of studies covered in this review article, combined with the prominence the Journal is giving to the subject in this issue, suggests how far the field has come in its understanding of the links between public health and communities. The authors summarize many of the community-based studies since 1980 and draw useful conclusions for strengthening community-based efforts at improving the health of the US population. Moreover, by drawing from the lessons learned from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)prevention programs, they provide significant recommendations for improving the potential of community-based strategies. However, we would like to draw the readers’ attention to some of the substantive issues involved in reviewing such a diverse literature, including a number raised by Merzel and D’Afflitti.