Find fact sheets, reports, guides, and other tools for health professionals and state health departments on heart disease and stroke policies.
State Policy Analysis
A Summary of Primary Stroke Center Policy in the United States [PDF-2M] This summary provides an overview laws and regulations related to primary stroke centers in the United States through mid-2010. It includes a summary and synthesis of policy action across states as well as an individual report for each state.
A Summary of Public Access Defibrillation Laws, United States, 2010 This summary reviews each state’s legal requirements for recommended public access defibrillation(PAD) program elements and concludes that PAD programs in many states are at risk of failure because critical elements such as maintenance, medical oversight, emergency medical service notification, and continuous quality improvement are not required. The summary suggests that policy makers consider strengthening PAD policies by enacting laws that can reduce the time from collapse to shock, such as requiring the strategic placement of AEDs in high-risk locations or mandatory PAD registries that are coordinated with local EMS and dispatch centers.
State Law Fact Sheets
Law can serve as an important tool in improving public health.1 State Law Fact Sheets describe the scientific evidence in support of particular legal interventions and describe the extent to which states have enacted such laws. Such information can be useful to state and local public health practitioners, researchers, and decision makers.
Evidence-based policy can be used to prevent, control, and improve the outcomes of chronic disease. These reports aim to inform researchers, evaluators, and practitioners about the strengths and limitations of the evidence bases for individual components of chronic disease policy.
What Could Be Addressed in an Evidence-Informed State Workplace Health Promotion Law? [PDF-2M] The Policy Evidence Assessment Report What Could Be Addressed in an Evidence Informed State Workplace Health Promotion Law assesses the evidence for 21 types of workplace health promotion interventions addressed in state laws to inform policy decision makers, researchers, and program coordinators.
Community Health Worker Policy Evidence Assessment Report [PDF-843K] The Community Health Worker Policy Evidence Assessment Report assesses the evidence for 14 types of interventions addressed in state CHW laws to inform policy decision makers, researchers, and community and health organizations.
These resources include summaries, tools, and strategies for health professionals, CHWs, pharmacists, and more to help guide their heart disease and stroke prevention efforts.
Addressing Chronic Disease through Community Health Workers: A Policy and Systems-Level Approach [PDF-924K] This document provides guidance and resources for implementing recommendations to integrate community health workers (CHWs) into community-based efforts to prevent chronic disease. It sets forth evidence demonstrating the value and impact of CHWs in preventing and managing chronic diseases and describes comprehensive state policies, programs that engage CHWs, and resources to assist state health departments and others.
Improving the Food Environment Through Nutrition Standards: A Guide for Government Procurement [PDF-682K] Developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this procurement guide provides practical guidance to states and local governments for developing, adopting, implementing, and evaluating a food procurement policy. This guide also provides valuable insight into the appropriateness and acceptability of these policies in other worksite settings.
Online Procurement Resources [PDF-682K] The Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (DHDSP) provides resources to help organizations implement food service guidelines and strategies to reduce sodium. This document provides an overview of several resources related to food procurement, including guides, publications, and webinars.
Health Impact Assessment This page describes how to use the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) tool to evaluate the potential health effects of a project or policy before it is built or implemented. The HIA framework is used to bring potential public health impacts and considerations to the decision-making process for plans, projects, and policies that fall outside of traditional public health arenas, such as transportation and land use.
Resources from Other Organizations
The Cost-Effectiveness of Interventions Designed to Reduce Sodium Intake This comprehensive literature review summarizes evidence on selected population-wide interventions to reduce sodium as approaches to control hypertension. The findings indicate that sodium reduction interventions are low in cost and cost-effective.
A Population-Based Policy and Systems Change Approach to Prevent and Control Hypertension This Institute of Medicine (IOM) report recommends that federal, state, and local health agencies focus on population-based strategies that can reach large numbers of people and improve the well-being of entire communities. Behavioral and lifestyle interventions—reducing sodium intake, increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables, and increasing physical activity—are among the best examples. The report also highlights the need to improve providers’ adherence to the treatment guidelines for hypertension and to encourage patients to take medication consistently by reducing or eliminating the cost of antihypertensive medication.
Mensah GA, Goodman RA, Zaza S, et al. Law as a tool for preventing chronic diseases: expanding the spectrum of effective public health strategies. Prev. Chron. Dis. [serial online]. 2004:1(1). Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2004/jan/03_0033.htm.
Reports and publications that can be used to help shape policies for the prevention of heart disease and stroke.
