All registered stakeholders for NICE public health intervention guidance on reducing rates of premature death in disadvantaged areas were invited to comment on the draft summaries of the evidence to inform the development of the guidance.

The focus of the guidance is the role of proactive case finding, retention and access to services in tackling health inequalities by improving service use and compliance in groups in disadvantaged areas with a higher than average risk of premature death.

Proactive case finding, retention and access to services are activities which can be undertaken in relation to a wide range of public health interventions. While these activities are likely to differ across public health issues, in order to better understand what they might involve two topics have been chosen for detailed study. These are smoking cessation and provision of statins. Smoking cessation was chosen because smoking accounts for approximately half the difference in life expectancy between the highest and lowest socio-economic groups. Provision of statins was chosen because they are used to prevent or manage cardiovascular disease, a leading cause of premature death.

This evidence summary comprises:

• a mapping exercise to help identify and describe proactive case finding, retention and access to services in the areas of smoking cessation and provision of statins;
• executive summaries from two rapid reviews of the effectiveness of these approaches in the areas of smoking cessation and statins;
• a review of the cost effectiveness of these approaches.

The evidence summary documents for consultation can be found under 'Consultation Documents' at the link below. Copies of the full reviews, including the lists of included and excluded references can also be found under 'Background Documents'.

This consultation on the draft summary of the evidence ran from Thursday 27 September until Thursday 25 October 2007 and is now closed.