A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke

The Purpose of the Plan

To chart a course for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and collaborating public health agencies, with all interested partners and the public at large, to help in promoting achievement of national goals for preventing heart disease and stroke over the next two decades-through 2020 and beyond.

Heart disease and stroke are among the nation’s leading causes of death and major causes of disability, and these conditions can be expected to increase sharply as this country’s “baby boom” generation ages. Yet these conditions are largely preventable. As expressed in the Steps to a HealthierUS initiative from Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson, the long–term solution for our nation’s health care crisis requires embracing prevention as the first step. To reverse the epidemic of heart disease and stroke through increasingly effective prevention, action is needed now.

A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke addresses this urgent need for action. Key partners, public health experts, and heart disease and stroke prevention specialists came together to develop targeted recommendations and specific action steps toward achievement of this goal, through a process convened by CDC and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Contributing Partners

The special contributions of the following partners to development of A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke, through representation in the Working Group or Expert Panels, is gratefully acknowledged

• American Heart Association/American Stroke Association
• Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
• Association of State and Territorial Directors of Health Promotion and Public Health Education (ASTDHPPHE)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
• National Association of Chronic Disease Directors
• Health Canada
• Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
• National Association of County and City Health Officials
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH), HHS
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, HHS
• National Stroke Association
• Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office of Public Health and Science, HHS
• Prevention Research Centers Program, CDC, HHS
• World Health Organization

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Errata: A correction has been made since printing the current version of A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke.

On Appendix page C-6, the sentence should read—

CDC’s Active Community Environments Initiative (ACES) works with partners to promote the development of accessible recreation facilities, including more opportunities for walking and cycling.

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