Health: Heart Disease Prevention

Heart Disease and Stroke

Updated December 2004

Healthy Lifestyles Competition 2005: Legislators and legislative staff can win great prizes by exercising and eating healthy in February 2005, American Heart Month. Find out more!

Now Archived--Cardiovascular web audioconference of April 14, 2004. This web-assisted audioconference provided state policymakers with information about how they can help raise public awareness, support health systems changes to ensure a quick response to victims of heart attack and stroke, and address cardiovascular health issues for women.

Killing almost a million Americans each year, cardiovascular disease--principally high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke--is the leading cause of death among both men and women, and across all racial and ethnic groups. About 61 million Americans live with some form of the disease. The cost of heart disease and stroke in the United States is projected to be $368 billion in 2004, including health care expenditures and lost productivity from death and disability. A limited number of health-related behaviors--most notably tobacco use, lack of physical activity and poor nutrition--are responsible for much of the burden of cardiovascular disease.

Presentations and Publications
Public Health News - A Major Health Concern: Women & Cardiovascular Disease:	This State Health Notes article looks at this important public health issue.
NCSL Presentation on Stroke Legislation	This presentation, created for the 10^th Annual Stroke Belt Consortium meeting, discusses working with legislators and legislative staff and reviews laws on stroke prevention and treatment.
Diseases of the Heart: 2001 Death Rate	An NCSL postcard describing the heart disease epidemic and displaying heart disease death rates in the 50 states.
State Laws on Heart Attacks & Defibrillators	Legislators have become actively involved with this issue, mostly in the past four years. Most commonly, the recent laws encourage broader availability, rather than creating new regulatory restrictions.
Stroke Death Rates, 1999	An NCSL postcard describing the stroke epidemic and displaying stroke death rates in the 50 states.

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For information: health-info@ncsl.org
National Conference of State Legislatures
7700 East First Place, Denver CO 80230
Phone: (303) 364-7700 Fax: (303) 364-7800

Heart Disease and Stroke

Presentations and Publications