Policy Resources

State Policy Analysis

• A Summary of Primary Stroke Center Policy in the United States [PDF-2M]
  This summary provides an overview laws and regulations related to primary stroke centers in the United States through mid-2010. It includes a summary and synthesis of policy action across states as well as an individual report for each state.
• A Summary of Public Access Defibrillation Laws, United States, 2010
  This summary reviews each state’s legal requirements for recommended public access defibrillation(PAD) program elements and concludes that PAD programs in many states are at risk of failure because critical elements such as maintenance, medical oversight, emergency medical service notification, and continuous quality improvement are not required. The summary suggests that policy makers consider strengthening PAD policies by enacting laws that can reduce the time from collapse to shock, such as requiring the strategic placement of AEDs in high-risk locations or mandatory PAD registries that are coordinated with local EMS and dispatch centers.

Guides, Recommendations, & Tools

• Addressing Chronic Disease through Community Health Workers: A Policy and Systems-Level Approach [PDF-924K]
  This document provides guidance and resources for implementing recommendations to integrate community health workers (CHWs) into community-based efforts to prevent chronic disease. It sets forth evidence demonstrating the value and impact of CHWs in preventing and managing chronic diseases and describes comprehensive state policies, programs that engage CHWs, and resources to assist state health departments and others.
• Primary Stroke Center Policy: Recommendations for Policy Implementation [PDF-1M]
  This document identifies the key components, facilitators, and barriers to Primary Stroke Center Policy implementation for states.
• Improving the Food Environment Through Nutrition Standards: A Guide for Government Procurement [PDF-682K]
  Developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this procurement guide provides practical guidance to states and local governments for developing, adopting, implementing, and evaluating a food procurement policy. This guide also provides valuable insight into the appropriateness and acceptability of these policies in other worksite settings.
• Online Procurement Resources [PDF-682K]
  The Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (DHDSP) provides resources to help organizations implement food service guidelines and strategies to reduce sodium. This document provides an overview of several resources related to food procurement, including guides, publications, and webinars.
• Under Pressure: Strategies for Sodium Reduction in the Hospital Environment [PDF-735K]
  This document examines the importance of healthy foods in hospital environments and provides strategies to improve health through sodium reduction in foods served at hospitals.
• Under Pressure: Strategies for Sodium Reduction in the School Environment [PDF-1.8M]
  This document examines the importance of providing healthy school meals to children in schools and provides strategies to for sodium reduction in the school environment.
• Under Pressure: Strategies for Sodium Reduction in Worksites [PDF-1.3M]
  This document examines the importance of healthy foods at worksites and provides strategies to improve health through sodium reduction in foods available at worksites.
• Science-in-Briefs: Turning Science Into Action
  Science-in-Briefs are concise and user-friendly publication summaries intended to enhance the understanding and application of current research findings. Science-in-Briefs provide a short synopsis of newly published articles summing up the findings and how these findings might be applied to the work in cardiovascular health promotion by practitioners and policy makers. Topics include: hypertension, cardiovascular disease risk factors, patient centered medical homes, and sodium.
• Health Impact Assessment
  This page describes how to use the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) tool to evaluate the potential health effects of a project or policy before it is built or implemented. The HIA framework is used to bring potential public health impacts and considerations to the decision-making process for plans, projects, and policies that fall outside of traditional public health arenas, such as transportation and land use.

Supporting Resources

• The Cost-Effectiveness of Interventions Designed to Reduce Sodium Intake
  This comprehensive literature review summarizes evidence on selected population-wide interventions to reduce sodium as approaches to control hypertension. The findings indicate that sodium reduction interventions are low in cost and cost-effective.
• Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in the United States
  This Institute of Medicine (IOM) report recommends strategies for reducing sodium intake to levels recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The IOM concludes that reducing sodium content in food requires new policies to set sodium standards for both manufacturers and restaurants so that all sources in the food supply are involved.
• A Population-Based Policy and Systems Change Approach to Prevent and Control Hypertension
  This Institute of Medicine (IOM) report recommends that federal, state, and local health agencies focus on population-based strategies that can reach large numbers of people and improve the well-being of entire communities. Behavioral and lifestyle interventions—reducing sodium intake, increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables, and increasing physical activity—are among the best examples. The report also highlights the need to improve providers’ adherence to the treatment guidelines for hypertension and to encourage patients to take medication consistently by reducing or eliminating the cost of antihypertensive medication.
• The Role of Nutrition in Maintaining Health in the Nation's Elderly: Evaluating Coverage of Nutrition Services for the Medicare Population
  This Institute of Medicine (IOM) publication provides recommendations for nutrition services for the elderly, including sodium reduction among the Medicare population, and considers how health care coverage policies should be approached and practiced. The book also discusses the role of nutrition therapy in the management of cardiovascular disease, among other conditions.