About the CDC Healthy Aging Program

Located in CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the Healthy Aging Program (HAP) serves as the focal point for older adult health at CDC, and establishes programs, develops innovative tools, and provides a comprehensive approach to helping older adults live longer, high-quality, productive, and independent lives. HAP collaborates with other CDC programs, such as those focusing on injury prevention, disability prevention, and adult immunizations, as well as key external partners. Through health promotion and disease prevention, CDC has the opportunity to improve health and quality of life for older adults, and to slow the expected growth of health care and long-term costs for this and future generations.

Our goals:

1. Enhance the ability of states and communities to identify and implement effective strategies, policies, and programs to promote and protect the health of older adults.
2. Expand efforts to integrate public health and aging services and enhance outreach for health promotion and disease prevention for older adults.
3. Promote health and preserve health-related quality of life for older adults within health care and other systems.

Through cooperative agreements, grants, and contracts, the Healthy Aging Program supports projects for health promotion, preventive services, mental health, caregiving, decision making at the end of life, emergency preparedness, and chronic disease management. Among the resources developed by the program for public health and aging services professionals are interactive, web-based tools that provide data for action.

In 2005, the Healthy Aging Program formed the Healthy Brain Initiative/Alzheimer’s disease segment, a program component focused on promoting cognitive health. In partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association, The National Public Health Road Map to Maintaining Cognitive Health was released identifying actions necessary to advance cognitive health as a public health issue.