Which concept refers to identifying and using practices from within a community that lead to better health outcomes than expected?

• A. Positive deviance.
• B. Negative deviance.
• C. Conventional practice.
• D. Outlier theory.

Answer: (A)

Positive deviance focuses on people within a community who, despite similar challenges and resources, achieve healthier results by using uncommon but successful behaviors. The idea is to identify these high-performing individuals or groups, learn what they do differently, and then promote and adapt those practices for others so the whole community can improve. This approach works well because it builds on existing social norms and peer influence, uses local assets, and often requires fewer resources than external programs, making sustainable change more likely. The other ideas don’t fit as well: negative deviance describes riskier or harmful behaviors that lead to worse outcomes; conventional practice refers to standard methods that may not produce superior results in every setting; outlier theory is a broad statistical term not specifically about discovering and spreading locally effective health practices.