Description
The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) encourages all Americans to lead healthy and active lives. HHS’s ODPHP is committed to establishing and promoting national public health priorities, translating science into policy, guidance, and tools, and improving health literacy and equitable access to health information. To learn more about the importance of living a heart-healthy lifestyle to improve your heart-health outcomes, The Heart Truth® connected with Rear Admiral Paul Reed, M.D., Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health and Director, HHS ODPHP.
How does HHS’s Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion work to improve heart health for Americans?
The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) encourages all Americans to lead healthy and active lives by setting priorities for improving the nation’s health, providing science-based nutrition and physical activity guidance, and creating tools and resources to help people make healthy choices.
What are three actions people can take to maintain a heart-healthy lifestyle?
The risk factors that lead to cardiovascular disease are complex but can mostly be prevented with healthy behaviors, such as getting active, eating healthy, and avoiding tobacco use.
To maintain a heart-healthy lifestyle, people can:
- Move your way to get a little more active each day: Getting active for even 5 minutes each day has real health benefits. Use the Move Your Way® Activity Planner to build a personalized weekly activity plan.
- Build a healthy eating routine: Take steps to add heart-healthy foods to your shopping list. Consider simple swaps to cut down on saturated fat — like cooking with vegetable oil instead of butter or stick margarine — and to reduce your sodium intake — like adding herbs and spices for flavor instead of salt.
- Quit smoking: Your body begins to heal as soon as you quit smoking — you’ll feel better, have more energy to be active with your family and friends, and lower your risk of having a heart attack.
What resources or programs does the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion have that promote heart-healthy living?
ODPHP offers several helpful resources to clinical providers and public health professionals who want to do a better job of preventing heart disease in those they serve.
Specifically, Healthy People 2030 has established several key objectives related to heart disease and stroke and offers data and a number of evidence-based resources to assist with health promotion efforts. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Physical Activity Guidelines are also indispensable references for those providing guidance on nutrition and physical activity.
Move Your Way® provides ready-made communication materials to help people include more physical activity in their everyday routines. Consumers can explore MyHealthfinder, a tool that provides plain-language health content, including several plain-language heart-health recommendations and resources.
HHS’s Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion provides leadership and support for the Move Your Way® campaign. How does the campaign aim to help people live a more active lifestyle?
The Move Your Way® campaign plays a crucial role in educating the public about physical activity by translating the evidence-based recommendations from the Physical Activity Guidelines into actionable and easy-to-understand messages for people of all ages and abilities. The campaign is changing the conversation about physical activity with key messages like “lots of things count,” “it all adds up,” and “find what works for you.”
The campaign includes over 80 English and Spanish materials — like posters, fact sheets, videos, and interactive tools — that explain how much physical activity people need, offer tips to overcome common barriers to physical activity, and highlight benefits that resonate with various audiences. Individuals, health educators, healthcare providers, local health departments, academics, researchers, and other physical activity organizations can use campaign materials to promote physical activity in their community.
What are some benefits the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion has experienced by being part of The Heart Truth® Healthy Hearts Network?
Collaboration and partnership are essential to advancing our collective efforts to promote heart health. ODPHP has appreciated the opportunity to share resources with members of the Healthy Hearts Network and learn about other aligned initiatives and campaigns. Partnering with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has provided more opportunities to amplify heart-healthy messages and create greater awareness of the impact of heart disease on women.
Additionally, ODPHP, alongside the NHLBI, is a founding member of the Federal Hypertension Control Leadership Council, which inspires, coordinates, and accelerates action to improve equitable hypertension prevention, detection, and control.
Are there resources from NHLBI or The Heart Truth that you have found useful for your outreach efforts?
ODPHP frequently shares NHLBI and The Heart Truth resources related to heart disease and stroke prevention across social media platforms, such as this X (Twitter) post on stroke risk factors, this LinkedIn post sharing the African American Women and Heart Disease Fact Sheet, and this Facebook post on tools for community health workers.
The Heart Health pages on MyHealthfinder also feature various NHLBI and The Heart Truth resources, including the Blood Pressure Wallet Card, DASH Eating Plan, and Heart-Healthy Living materials, that anyone can use to help lower their risk of heart disease.
Links to additional resources
• The Heart Truth
• DASH Eating Plan
• Are You at a Healthy Weight? Fact Sheet
• Take Action for Your Heart: Get Started Fact Sheet
• Heart Healthy Eating Plan Fact Sheet
• Make Physical Activity a Habit Tracker
• Move Your Way®
• MyHealthfinder
