This paper discusses issues associated with taking a best practices approach to health promotion including determining factors, implementation, and implications for practitioners and policy makers. We suggest that health promotion effectiveness will be increased through adoption of a systematic and critically reflective approach to practice—one which considers all major factors affecting practice and is consciously guided by health promotion values and goals, theories and beliefs, evidence, and understanding of the environment. To help practitioners develop and implement best practices, we outline our Inter-active Domain Model of Best Practices in Health Promotion, the IDM Operational Framework, and a set of best practices criteria. The conceptual model, framework, and criteria are based on three domains (i.e., underpinnings, understanding of the environment, and practice) and related subdomains, all of which interact with each other within the context of the immediate and broader environments.
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