IMPROVING POPULATION BLOOD PRESSURE CONTROL FOR BRAIN AND HEART HEALTH

George et al discuss efforts by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reduce heart disease and stroke. These include strategies that are aimed toward epidemiology and surveillance to provide states and communities with relevant data to guide local interventions; environmental approaches that can address healthy behaviors in various worksite, local, and related settings; health-care system interventions that improve the use and delivery of preventive clinical services; and community and clinical program/service linkages that improve the management of chronic disease or those at risk of chronic cardiovascular disease. To support these goals, CDC helps state and local public health agencies and communities work with health-care systems to implement clinical quality improvement processes and to promote the adoption of team-based care and patient self-management for hypertension control. Additionally, CDC promotes sodium reduction programs in communities in the US and globally.