What disease prevention initiatives does HHS sponsor?

Answer:

HHS has a number of initiatives to promote the development of healthy children and adults:

HealthierUS Initiative

The HealthierUS initiative is a national effort to improve people's lives, prevent and reduce the costs of disease, and promote community health and wellness. The major components of this initiative are:

Small Step: Be a Player, Play an Hour a Day

Find out cool stuff about food and what it can do for kids!

Kids can select a food and find out what that food can do for their body!
Take the Small Step Challenge, a quiz to exercise your brain.
Play cool games and activities (and then play at least an hour a day)!

Healthy People 2010

Healthy People 2010 provides a statement of national health objectives designed to identify the most significant preventable threats to health and to establish national goals to reduce these threats. The two overarching goals of the project are:

Increase quality and years of healthy life
Eliminate health disparities among different segments of the population

There are 28 Focus Areas created by scientists both inside and outside of Government that identify a wide range of public health priorities.

Steps to a HealthierUS

Steps to a HealthierUS supports evidence-based community programs and interventions focused on reducing the burden of chronic diseases, including diabetes, obesity, and asthma, and related risk behaviors throughout the Nation. Like Healthy People 2010, this initiative aims to help people live longer and healthier lives. Programs under Steps to a HealthierUS work together to guide States and communities throughout the Nation toward improving health status. More information is available at www.healthierus.gov/steps.

Guide to Clinical Preventive Services (AHRQ)

The Guide to Clinical Preventive Services includes U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on screening, counseling, and preventive medication topics, as well as clinical considerations for each topic. Sponsored since 1998 by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the USPSTF is an independent panel of experts in primary care and prevention that systematically reviews the evidence of effectiveness and develops recommendations for clinical preventive services. The task force rigorously evaluates clinical research to assess the merits of preventive measures. The clinical categories are:

Cancer;
Heart and vascular disease;
Injury and violence;
Infectious diseases;
Mental health conditions and substance abuse;
Metabolic, nutrition, and endocrine conditions;
Musculoskeletal conditions;
Obstetrics and gynecologic conditions;
Pediatric disorders; and
Vision and hearing disorders.

Guide to Community Preventive Services (CDC)

The Guide to Community Preventive Services summarizes what is known about the effectiveness, economic efficiency, and feasibility of interventions to promote community health and prevent disease. The Task Force on Community Preventive Services, an independent decision making body convened by HHS, makes recommendations for the use of various interventions based on the evidence gathered in rigorous and systematic scientific reviews of published studies conducted by review teams for the guide. The findings from the reviews are published in peer-reviewed journals and also are made available online. The task force has published over 100 findings across 16 topic areas, including tobacco use, physical activity, cancer, oral health, diabetes, motor vehicle occupant injury, vaccine-preventable diseases, prevention of injuries due to violence, and social environment.

Last Updated: 4/21/2008