CDC National Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Program

Ohio
Capacity Building

The Ohio Department of Health began receiving funds from CDC in 2000 to support a state heart disease and stroke prevention program. It also received CDC funding to implement a demonstration public health project that will improve quality of care through the implementation of a hub-and-spoke telemedicine system using Remote Evaluation for Acute Ischemic Stroke technology in the state.

Burden of Heart Disease and Stroke

• More than 1 out of 4 deaths in Ohio are due to heart disease. (National Vital Statistics Report, 2009.)
• 27,886 Ohioans died from heart disease in 2006 (26.1% of total deaths in Ohio). (National Vital Statistics Report, 2009.)
• 5,828 Ohioans died from stroke in 2006 (5.5% of total deaths in Ohio). (National Vital Statistics Report, 2009.)

See the Ohio Department of Health report, The Burden of Stroke in Ohio 2006, [PDF–2.32M] and the Great Lakes Regional Stroke Network report, The Burden of Stroke in the Great Lakes Region 2008, [PDF–746K] for more stroke burden statistics.

• According to 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey results, adults in Ohio reported having the following risk factors for heart disease and stroke:
  
  • 28.4% had high blood pressure
  • 39.6% of those screened reported having high blood cholesterol
  • 9.5% had diabetes
  • 23.1% were current smokers
  • 63.5% were overweight or obese (Body Mass Index greater than or equal to 25.0)
  • 50.0% reported no exercise in the prior 30 days
  • 79.2% ate fruit and vegetables less than 5 times a day

Key Responsibilities

• Facilitate collaboration among public and private sector partners, such as managed care organizations, health insurers, federally funded health centers, businesses, priority population organizations, and emergency response agencies.
• Define the burden of heart disease and stroke and assess existing population-based strategies for primary and secondary prevention of heart disease and stroke within the state.
• Develop and update a comprehensive state plan for heart disease and stroke prevention with emphasis on heart-healthy policies development, physical and social environments change, and disparities elimination (e.g., based on geography, gender, race or ethnicity, or socioeconomic status).
• Identify culturally appropriate approaches to promote heart disease and stroke prevention among racial, ethnic, and other priority populations.
• Use population-based public health strategies to increase public awareness of the heart disease and stroke urgency, the signs and symptoms of heart disease and stroke, and the need to call 9–1–1.

State Highlights

• The Ohio Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (OHDSP) program, in partnership with the Ohio Commission on African American Males (CAAM), has conducted focus groups with African American men in the three largest Ohio cities with a high concentration of African Americans (Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus) to assess their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about the prevention and control of high blood pressure. In addition, OHDSP conducted structured interviews with physicians and health care providers treating African American males to assess their practices, perceived barriers to prevention, treatment and management methods for high blood pressure, and communication strategies. The data from both studies identified key strategies and messages appropriate for creating educational campaigns aimed at African American men and health care providers who treat them. The OHDSP program and partners have begun to address these disparities by creating a clinician’s quality improvement initiative to encourage physicians to improve high blood pressure and high cholesterol control practices with African American male patients at risk or currently diagnosed with high blood pressure.
• In collaboration with Ohio Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and the Ohio State University Hospital, the Ohio Department of Health is working to improve quality of care for acute stroke patients in rural communities by implementing stroke telemedicine systems with small rural hospitals in three underserved Appalachian counties of the state. These hospitals lack the capacity to provide the full complement of services to treat acute stroke patients and have ground transport times greatly exceeding one hour. The project goals are to increase access to advanced stroke care in underserved regions of Ohio, to improve EMS response through standardized protocols and training, and to enhance quality and efficiency within the health care system by treating patients at the appropriate facility. The hospitals selected for participation in the project include Coshocton County Memorial Hospital, Southeast Ohio Regional Medical Center in Guernsey County, and Barnesville Hospital in Belmont County.
• OHDSP developed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ohio Department of Public Safety, the Division of Emergency Medical Services (Ohio EMS) and completed the Burden of Stroke Study in Ohio. This study, in partnership with the Ohio EMS and the state EMS medical director, examined the impact of EMS provider education on the rapid patient assessment, triage, and transport of stroke victims and the development of pre-hospital care protocols on outcomes for stroke patients in seven underserved rural counties in Ohio. The goal of the study was to develop state guidelines for use by EMS providers to facilitate the management of acute stroke.
• The Burden of Heart Disease in Ohio report was completed in 2010. The report is a comprehensive review of morbidity and mortality related to coronary heart disease, heart attack, hypertension, and heart failure, and includes newly available data from Medicare and the Ohio Family Health Survey, along with Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Emergency Medical Services, and hospital discharge and mortality data.
• The 2nd edition of The Ohio Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke has been completed. The HDSP Plan was developed with the involvement of 27 member agencies from the Ohio Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Council and outlines comprehensive objectives and strategies that address secondary prevention, disparities and priority populations, a framework for data collection, and evaluation of CVH outcomes. Healthy People 2010 and proposed CDC blood pressure indicators are also included.

For more information on heart disease and stroke prevention in the state, visit the Ohio Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Program Web site.

To view county-level data, visit our interactive map site.