In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the Pawtucket Heart Health Program conducted an intervention to educate 71,000 people about heart disease through a mass media campaign and community programs. Five years into the intervention, the risks for cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease had decreased by 16 percent among members of the randomly selected intervention population. Researchers at Ohio State University recruited 60 women in their forties for a 12-week walking program that took place on the college's campus. At 3 months, the intervention group saw a one percent decrease in body mass index (BMI), a 3.4 percent decrease in hypertension, a 3 percent decrease in cholesterol, and a 5.5 percent decrease in glucose. The Rockford Coronary Health Improvement Project in Rockford, Illinois was a community-based lifestyle intervention program aimed at reducing coronary risk, especially in a high risk group. The intervention included a 40-hour educational curriculum delivered over a 30-day period with clinical and nutritional assessments before and after the educational component, in which participants were instructed to optimize their diet, quit smoking, and exercise daily (walking 30 minutes per day). At the end of the 30-day intervention period, stratified analyses of total cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides, blood glucose, blood pressure and weight showed highly significant reductions with the greatest improvements among those at highest risk.

The Compendium report follows a release this summer by the Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Convergence Partnership, which consists of The California Endowment, The Kresge Foundation, Nemours, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and Kaiser Permanente, which highlighted successful community-based disease prevention programs that these major national private foundations have supported and outlined the important health impacts that community prevention efforts can provide.

"As the country is engaged in conversations about how to best structure health systems, we strongly believe that robust provisions for community health must be a centerpiece of reform efforts," said Marion Standish, MA, JD, Director, Community Health, The California Endowment, one of the groups involved in the Convergence Partnership. "As was stated in the recent announcement by the Convergence Partnership, a focus on community prevention will improve health, save money, reduce demands on our health care system, and most importantly, will lead to a nation of healthier people and healthier places to live."

In 2008, TFAH released a report that found that an investment of $10 per person per year in proven community-based programs to increase physical activity, improve nutrition, and prevent smoking and other tobacco use like those featured in the Compendium report could save the country more than $16 billion annually within five years. This is a return of $5.60 for every $1.

Source: healthyamericans