Massachusetts' approach to the prevention of heart disease, cancer, and stroke

Abstract

Heart disease, cancer, and cerebrovascular disease together cause more than two out of three deaths in the United States annually. These three diseases are largely a result of widespread risk factors such as smoking, unhealthy diet, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, and environmental toxic exposure. The prevalence of these risk factors can be significantly lowered, resulting in major reductions in mortality rates for these diseases. Thus far, there have been no statewide disease prevention efforts to reduce deaths from all three diseases simultaneously. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health recently began an aggressive statewide program to prevent deaths from these three causes through a reduction in their underlying risk factors. Within 5 years, this program will save at least 2,000 lives annually. Similar efforts by public health agencies and health care practitioners in the rest of the United States could save many thousands of lives.