Primary prevention of substance misuse: evidence map

Next update: June 2025

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Introduction

This map provides structured access to an up to date, robust body of secondary evidence on interventions to prevent of substance misuse. Sources included in the map may provide evidence which addresses the following question: What interventions are effective for the primary prevention of substance misuse in children, adolescents or adults?

Main points

Our suite of digital evidence maps are designed to provide structured access to an up-to-date, high level and robust body of evidence on a range of topics. They include sources of evidence which sit at the top of the ‘evidence pyramid’ i.e. robustly conducted systematic reviews and evidence based guidelines. They aim to give practitioners and decision makers easy access to reliable and methodologically sound research, which can be used to help inform practice and decision making.

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Technical information

About evidence maps

Evidence reviews and guidelines included in this map are grouped by the population they focus on and the type of intervention. They are displayed in an interactive heat map. Some reviews may appear in more than one category if they cover multiple groups or interventions.

We have also recorded the settings where interventions took place (for example, schools or community settings) and the outcomes measured. You can use the filters at the top of the map to narrow results by setting or outcome.

Clicking on a box in the heat map will show a list of relevant reviews or guidelines. From there, you can open a summary page for each one. These summaries include key information such as aims, findings and conclusions, taken directly from the original publication. We do not interpret or analyse these findings ourselves, but present them to help you decide whether to explore the full source.

How to use this map

The map is designed to help you quickly find research evidence that has already been brought together in a way which we consider to be methodologically robust and therefore may be a more reliable base upon which to start thinking about informing decisions. This can be a useful starting point when considering evidence to inform decisions.

However, it is important to note that:

You should consider whether the evidence is relevant to your local context, such as Wales.

The searches used to create this map are targeted, not comprehensive. The map does not include all available evidence.

The reviews shown should be used as part of a wider strategy for gathering evidence and not used solely as the basis for decision making, without further interrogation and examination into their applicability for Wales.