Prevention plays a vital role in achieving lasting improvements in public health. Its goal is to prevent the onset of health problems and to maintain or improve health. Certain effective preventive interventions can reduce healthcare costs. Among these, some are more efficient than others and should be prioritized. The benefits of prevention are well-documented, but for them to be recognized, interventions must be scientifically evaluated. This “scientific evidence” must be made available to decision-makers in a concise and user-friendly format; this is the primary objective of prevention registries. As part of its missions, Santé publique France has been working since 2018 to develop a tool that identifies effective, promising, or innovative prevention and health promotion programs in France. The goal is to enable prevention stakeholders to increasingly utilize and support interventions that have proven their effectiveness.

With ReperPrev, Santé publique France contributes its expertise and tools to support professionals in the fields of prevention and public health, as well as local stakeholders, thereby fostering the development of prevention and health promotion that closely aligns with community needs. The agency thus ensures the scientific quality of the registry. ReperPrev is recognized as the National Prevention Registry for France by the scientific community of prevention researchers, in conjunction with the European Society for Prevention Research (EUSPR), and by the European working group on “Best Practice Portals on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention” (TWIG EuroHealthNet).

A support tool for many field practitioners and decision-makers

ReperPrev is a reference resource for policymakers, professionals, public health practitioners, researchers, organizations, and funders to help them prioritize the use of or support for interventions that have proven effective.

What are the objectives of the registry?

The primary objective of the ReperPrev Registry is to address national and regional needs by identifying and providing detailed information on scientifically evaluated interventions in prevention and health promotion.

The registry aims to catalog interventions according to several levels of classification and bases its work on evidence derived from evaluation studies. It catalogs effective or promising interventions in health prevention and promotion that have already been implemented or proposed in France so that practitioners in the field can utilize them in their professional context. Certain unevaluated interventions are also included, provided their rationale and/or description are justified; some of these may be “promising.” Santé publique France is also interested in replicating (already evaluated) interventions from one region to another, or even in adapting internationally proven programs for the French context.

Ultimately, the registry aims to facilitate the implementation of interventions to increase the effectiveness and equity of local prevention and health promotion programs on a national scale.

What types of interventions are involved?

• interventions identified through the literature, including real-world international experiences and adaptations that have demonstrated their effectiveness, while incorporating on-the-ground innovation;

• Interventions proposed by organizations or project leaders;

• Interventions selected through calls for proposals.

All areas of public health are covered, with the exception of patient therapeutic education.

An independent scientific evaluation process

An evaluation committee for health prevention and promotion interventions, composed of qualified experts from outside Santé publique France, supports ReperPrev’s work. This committee meets 4–5 times a year. Its mission is to validate, based on scientific criteria, the eligibility of the interventions submitted to it and their classification level. Interventions are selected, evaluated, and classified into 5 levels, ranging from a simple description of the intervention (Level 1) to the demonstration of replicable effects in similar contexts (Level 5).

• Learn more about the evaluation committee’s responsibilities and its composition

ReperPrev: Instructions and Usage

Submitting an Initiative

This feature is available to any program organizer who wishes to submit their prevention initiative to the registry.

How does it work in practice?

1. Go to: reperprev.santepubliquefrance.fr and “create an account to submit an initiative.”

2. Once the account is created: select “submit an initiative” and complete the description form.

You can save this form without submitting it and return to it later before finalizing it. Once validated, it is forwarded to the ReperPrev project team. Great care must be taken with the editorial quality of this form (max. 5–7 pages), as it is intended for publication. It may be supplemented by supporting documents (publications, brochures, intervention manuals, training guides, etc.). The costs of the intervention must be specified. All information submitted as an attachment is strictly for internal use only. It is based on the information submitted at a given time “t” that the Evaluation Committee will be able to decide on the program’s eligibility for ReperPrev.

A categorization organized by themes: physical activity, addictions, nutrition, infectious risks, environmental health, mental health, and sexual health, by target population and/or setting.

In the “Search” tab, then “Search for an intervention,” a search engine that may or may not combine multiple selectable criteria allows you to refine your query. An intervention may cover multiple themes. Effective interventions always appear first in the search results.

ReperPrev is updated regularly, and its content is expanded based on the work of the evaluation committee. The latest recognized interventions made available are displayed on the homepage.

A newsletter (3–4 issues per year) will be available next fall, with free subscription.