Resources for Public Health Professionals
American Heart Month 2023
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 that closing health disparities gaps is possible.
The data, statistics, and strategies found in this toolkit can support your important efforts to improve cardiovascular disease (CVD) rates in your 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.
- Use these tools in tandem with the actions recommended in Best Practices for Heart Disease and Stroke: A Guide to Effective Approaches and Strategies.
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.
- 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. - Health Equity
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.
- Use these tools to effectively communicate with Hispanic populations, who historically have had low control rates for hypertension.
- 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. - A Closer Look at African American Men and High Blood Pressure Control
Download this CDC report and executive summary highlighting the burden of hypertension on Black or African American men. The report includes data, promising practices and interventions, and a list of men’s health resources. - 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 messages with your followers. Don’t forget to tag @CDCHeart_Stroke in your posts and follow us on social media.
Black adults have twice the rate of death from hypertension-related disorders compared to white adults. Use these toolkits from @CDCHeart_Stroke to take charge of #hypertension control in your community. #HeartMonth cdc.gov/heartmonth
Black adults face a heavier burden of cardiovascular disease (#CVD) than White adults. Help your community #LiveToTheBeat of their own #heart and prevent CVD on their terms. Learn more about @CDCFound’s campaign. #HeartMonth https://bit.ly/AHM23PT4
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
Looking to improve #cardiovascular health in your community? Learn 18 evidence-based strategies for reducing #CVD risk factors from the @CDCHeart_Stroke Best Practices Guide. #HeartMonth https://bit.ly/AHM23PT3
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/heartmonth
Black adults have twice the rate of death from hypertension-related disorders compared with White adults. Check out these #HeartMonth toolkits to empower others on their journey to control and better heart health. cdc.gov/heartmonth
February is American #HeartMonth! Although cardiovascular disease (#CVD) death rates have increased across all demographic groups, Black populations continue to be disproportionately affected. Join the #LiveToTheBeat campaign to help Black adults in your community take small steps to prevent heart disease and stroke. https://millionhearts.hhs.gov/partners-progress/partners/live-beat-campaign-toolkit.html
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
Cardiovascular disease continues to be a leading cause of death each year. The @Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention developed the “Best Practices for Heart Disease and Stroke: A Guide to Effective Approaches and Strategies” to provide tools and tips for public health practitioners to prevent heart disease and stroke. Take a look! #HeartMonth https://bit.ly/2FZqTxV
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/heartmonth
Use the content below in your newsletters or e-blasts to inform people about our website and these useful tools.
Heart disease has been the number one cause of death in the United States for more than 90 years. And Black people in the United States are more likely to experience risk factors for heart disease, such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and high cholesterol. But there is good news. More adults are aware about cardiovascular disease (CVD) and how to prevent it, including Black adults. Now, we can help empower them to take the small steps that will help lower their risk. We can’t change everything today, but bit by bit, we can empower more people to stand up and take back their health, one small step at a time. Live to the Beat is a belief change campaign that aims to reduce the risk of CVD among Black adults ages 35 to 54 by encouraging them to take small steps to move more, eat better, and work with a health care professional to address key risk factors like hypertension, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar. We are happy to join with the CDC Foundation, the Million Hearts® initiative, and organizations across the nation in sharing these important messages with Black adults. Learn more at LivetotheBeat.org.
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.
