National Health Initiatives, Strategies & Action Plans

Below is a list of national public health initiatives, strategies, and action plans organized by health topic. Created by groups of experts and stakeholders, these planning documents establish strategic priorities for addressing the nation’s most pressing health problems. You can use these resources to develop state or local plans, prioritize public health activities, inform funding proposals, and create other materials to ensure that public health efforts align with national goals.

This list is not exhaustive, so if you are aware of a national public health initiative or plan that is not included here, let us know at infrastructure@cdc.gov.

For information about guidelines or recommendations developed by CDC, CDC federal advisory committees, or by CDC in collaboration with other organizations or agencies, visit Guidelines and Recommendations.

Alzheimer’s Disease

• National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease
• Healthy Aging in Action: Advancing the National Prevention Strategy [PDF – 4.14 MB]
• The Healthy Brain Initiative: A National Public Health Road Map to Maintaining Cognitive Health

Chronic Disease

• National Action Plan for Cancer Survivorship: Advancing Public Health Strategies
• National Public Health Agenda for Osteoarthritis [PDF – 2.2 MB]

Cross-Cutting Topics

• 6|18 Initiative: Accelerating Evidence into Action
• Healthy People
• HI-5: Health Impact in 5 Years
• National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy
  • CDC’s Health Literacy Action Plan
  • CDC’s Health Literacy Site (includes action plan)
• National Pain Strategy [PDF – 996 KB]
• National Prevention Strategy [PDF – 4.7 MB]

Emergency Preparedness & Response

• Global Health Security Agenda
• National Health Security and Implementation Plan [PDF – 243 KB]
• National Health Security Strategy 2019–2022 [PDF – 1.4 MB]
• National Pandemic Strategy
• National Strategy for Biosurveillance

Environmental Health

• Federal Action Plan to Reduce Childhood Lead Exposures and Associated Health Impacts [PDF – 8.6 MB]
• President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children
• Coordinated Federal Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Asthma Disparities

Health Disparities

• HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities [PDF – 98 MB]
• National Stakeholder Strategy for Achieving Health Equity [PDF – 1.1MB]

Health IT

• Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A 10-Year Vision to Achieve an Interoperable Health IT Infrastructure [PDF – 607 KB]

Healthcare Quality

• National Quality Strategy

Heart Disease & Stroke

• The Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke: Ten-Year Update [PDF – 2.44 MB]
• Million Hearts Initiative

Immunization/Vaccination

• National Adult Immunization Plan
• US National Vaccine Plan

Infectious Disease

• Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
  • National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
    • National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria [PDF – 441 KB]
  • CDC’s Antibiotic Resistance (AR) Solutions Initiative
• Healthcare-Associated Infections
  • National Action Plan to Prevent Health Care-Associated Infections: Road Map to Elimination
• Hepatitis
  • National Viral Hepatitis Action Plan 2017–2020
• HIV/AIDS
  • National HIV/AIDS Strategy: Updated to 2020 [PDF – 2.18 MB]
  • HIV Care Continuum Initiative
• Influenza (Flu)
  • National Pandemic Strategy
• Tuberculosis
  • National Action Plan for Combating Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis

Injury & Violence Prevention (Child Safety, Highway Safety, Occupational Safety, Suicide, Violence)

• Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health
• National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event Prevention
• National Action Plan for Child Injury Prevention
• National Strategies for Advancing Bicycle Safety
• National Strategies for Advancing Child Pedestrian Safety [PDF – 277 KB]
• National Strategy for Suicide Prevention: Goals and Objectives for Action
• National Strategy for Youth Preparedness Education: Empowering, Educating and Building Resilience
• Prevention Through Design National Initiative
• Toward Zero Deaths: A National Strategy on Highway Safety

Reproductive Health

• National Public Health Action Plan for the Detection, Prevention, and Management of Infertility [PDF – 947 KB]

Smoking & Tobacco Use

• E-cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General, 2016 (see Call to Action) [PDF – 2.29 MB]
• Ending the Tobacco Epidemic: A Tobacco Control Strategic Action Plan for the US Department of Health and Human Services [PDF – 2.2 MB]
• Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress [PDF – 35.95 MB]See Chapter 16, “A Vision for Ending the Tobacco Epidemic: Toward a Society Free of Tobacco-Caused Death and Disease” (page 865)

Vector-Borne Diseases

• A National Public Health Framework for the Prevention and Control of Vector-Borne Diseases in Human [PDF – 3.75 MB]
• National Framework fact sheet [PDF – 279 KB]

Workforce

• The National Public Health Workforce Strategic Roadmap