Partnering4Health to Implement and Disseminate PSE Approaches to Prevent Chronic Disease

Background: Chronic diseases and its related issues are among the top causes of preventable death in the United States. Communities with excess tobacco exposure, lack of safe physical activity options and little to no access to nutritious foods are at an increased risk for chronic diseases. In 2014, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded the National Implementation and Dissemination for Chronic Disease Prevention grant to support five national organizations. This national partnership promotes policy, systems and environmental (PSE) change approaches to chronic disease prevention in 97 communities in 36 states during a three-year period. The five funded organizations are: The American Heart Association (AHA), the National WIC Association (NWA), the American Planning Association (APA), the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) and the Directors of Health Promotion and Education (DHPE). 

Program background: DHPE and SOPHE serve as technical assistance (TA) and communications support for the national staff of AHA, NWA, and APA, along with their funded local health coalitions and project partners. The national partnership guides and supports the local multi-sector health coalition funded to implement PSE approaches to increase tobacco-free environments; improve nutrition; increase physical activity; and improve access to chronic disease prevention, risk reduction, and management opportunities. Through the creation of joint TA and communications plans, DHPE and SOPHE, along with CDC Division of Community Health (DCH) staff, strive to increase the communications capacity of AHA, NWA, APA, in addition to disseminating the project efforts to the public, partners and the funded coalitions.

Evaluation Methods and Results: Each of the five funded organizations is tasked with achieving 10 million media impressions during the project period. The unique characteristics of each organizations allows for the implementation of individual communications plans, while also monitoring the results of joint communication efforts, such as promoting National Health Observances like March as National Nutrition Month, where SOPHE gained millions of impressions through a radio tour. Results from the communication efforts of the five organizations will be presented during the session.

Conclusions: By having mandated communications deliverables, such as quarterly success stories from all five national organizations and the 97 funded coalitions, CDC is ensuring the frequent and effective dissemination of PSE efforts to prevent chronic disease nationwide. By highlighting the utilization of PSE change approaches and the multi-sector partnership as a national model to addressing chronic diseases, the intent is for an increased knowledge in the reason for prioritizing these methods and continued financial support of these approaches. 

Implications for research and/or practice: Multi-sector national partnerships to increase the awareness of PSE efforts to prevent chronic disease are promising methods to increasing the knowledge of not only the public, but also decision makers, from a national perspective. Other federal funders of chronic disease prevention may want to take note of CDC DCH’s deliberate approach to make communication and dissemination mandatory deliverables of the five funded organizations with a goal of 50 million media impressions to spread the word about PSE change approaches to improve community health.