Resources for Public Health Professionals
American Heart Month 2024
Public health professionals include community health workers and employees from federal, state, and local health organizations.
These partners are in a unique position to help raise awareness about women’s heart health.
The data, statistics, and strategies found in this toolkit can support your important efforts to improve cardiovascular disease (CVD) rates in women’s communities.
A health equity lens can also help address the needs of all your populations and help improve cardiovascular health for all.
Who Should Use This Toolkit?
The tools and resources in this toolkit are designed to help public health professionals encourage their communities to take small steps toward developing healthier lives.
How Do I Use This Toolkit?
- Read and incorporate evidence-based policy tools and guides into your organization.
- Link to data and maps that highlight the burden of CVD and related conditions and successful interventions.
- Share messages and graphics with individuals and patients in your social networks.
Public Health Tools and Resources
Explore policy tools and guides that can help public health professionals manage their community’s cardiovascular health.
- “Live to the Beat” Campaign Partner Toolkit
This Million Hearts® and CDC Foundation campaign focuses on empowering Black adults to pursue heart-healthy lifestyles on their own terms—to find what works best individually and consistently—as they live to their own beat. - Hypertension Communications Kit
Share these social messages, graphics, and resources to educate your audiences about hypertension. - Health Equity Guiding Principles for Inclusive Communication
Use this set of principles, resources, and specific suggestions on a variety of topics to help inform an inclusive approach to public health communications.
- Health Equity Indicators Toolkit
This toolkit presents health equity indicators (HEIs) across eight focus areas, or health equity themes, that influence inequities in cardiovascular disease prevention, care, and management as outlined in the HEI Conceptual Framework for cardiovascular disease. - Focusing on Health Equity
Learn how Million Hearts® aims to advance health equity through policies and practices that provide access to resources and enable cardiovascular health for all. - Community-Clinical Linkages Health Equity Guide
Practitioners can use this guide to help incorporate health equity into community-clinical linkages (CCLs). CCLs are an effective approach for preventing and managing chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease. - Advancing Health Equity in Chronic Disease Prevention and Management
View resources collected by CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion on health equity and racial/ethnic disparities. - Read these one-page “Field Notes” about efforts being made across the nation by CDC grant recipients who are working at state, local, and community levels to improve cardiovascular health.
- Quick Maps of Heart Disease, Stroke, and Socio-economic Conditions
View and download maps on heart disease and stroke showing national data, health care costs, and data on social determinants of health.
- Surveillance and Evaluation Data Resource Guide
This at-a-glance compilation of data sources can be used by program managers and evaluators in the planning and evaluation stages of heart disease and stroke prevention programs. - Health Systems Scorecard (HSSC) Version 2.0
CDC’s HSSC Version 2.0 is a voluntary quality improvement tool to assess evidence-based chronic disease care management policies and practices. - The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Control Hypertension: Sectors and Strategies: Public Health Professionals
Take these actions prescribed for public health professionals—in their unique position to promote high blood pressure in their communities—to implement effective hypertension control strategies. - Control High Blood Pressure: Evidence-Based Interventions
Implement evidence-based strategies from CDC’s 6|18 Initiative that help control blood pressure through medication adherence. - Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Policy Resources and Evidence Summaries
Find information from the CDC’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention on policy interventions that address health equity and serve priority populations in the prevention, detection, treatment, and control of heart disease and stroke as well as enhance related systems of care. - Guide to Community Preventive Services
Read this guide, which summarizes what is known about the effectiveness, economic efficiency, and feasibility of interventions to promote community health and prevent disease.
Spread the Word
Share the following social media messages with your followers. Don’t forget to tag @CDCHeart_Stroke in your posts and follow DHDSP and Million Hearts® on social media.
High blood pressure accounts for 1 in 5 deaths among women in the U.S. and is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Be proactive about heart health and learn about the risk factors for high blood pressure. https://bit.ly/4brWEi6
Health equity is more than an ideal—it’s a requirement for a truly heart-healthy community. Disparities in heart health deepen based on gender, especially when coupled with race, ethnicity, and other social factors. Make health equity a primary focus in your practice. https://bit.ly/4boUvDT
State and local health departments: @CDCHeart_Stroke’s #GIS tools can help you track trends and disparities in #CardiovascularDisease in your community this #HeartMonth. https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/maps/index.htm
With partnership and focus, we can make #hypertension control possible in our communities. @CDCHeart_Stroke is here to help. Start with these #HeartMonth toolkits. cdc.gov/myheartmyvoice
State and local health departments: @CDCHeart_Stroke’s #GIS tools can help you track trends and disparities in #CardiovascularDisease in your community this #HeartMonth. https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/maps/index.htm
Women often experience delayed recognition, diagnosis, and treatment for heart attacks. They deserve to be heard—especially when it comes to their hearts.
Commit to defending your patients’ heart health this American Heart Month. Empower women to raise their voices. #HeartMonth https://bit.ly/3OAuNCy
Not all women are equally impacted by cardiovascular disease: Black women are nearly 60% more likely to have high blood pressure than White women. This American Heart Month, commit to increasing awareness of barriers to equitable health care. https://bit.ly/4bvEgF6
State and local health departments: CDC’s GIS tools can help you track trends and disparities in #CardiovascularDisease in your community this #HeartMonth. https://bit.ly/AHM23PT5
Local @Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Heart Disease and Stroke trend data are available for your county! Enhance your efforts this #HeartMonth to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease (#CVD) with these maps and graphs detailing local trends in #HeartDisease and #stroke mortality by age, race, and ethnicity. Check out the Local Trends Dashboard to see if your county is experiencing increases in CVD mortality. https://bit.ly/AHM23PT6
With partnership and focus, we can make #hypertension control possible in our communities. CDC is here to help. Start with these #HeartMonth toolkits. www.cdc.gov/myheartmyvoice
Download our resources for you to share with individuals and patients in your practice.
Implement our clinical tools and resources into your practice, and share the tools with your team.
