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CDC awards $211M in community prevention grants, with support for obesity, diabetes battles
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The CDC will provide $211 million in first-year funding awards to states, large and small cities and counties, tribes and tribal organizations, and national and community organizations to help prevent and control chronic diseases, according to an announcement by the agency.
Supported in part by the Affordable Care Act and mainly through the Prevention and Public Health Fund, 193 community prevention grants to all 50 states are structured into programs charged with coordinating activities to reduce the prevalence of obesity and the rates of death and disability due to diabetes, among other goals.
“All six programs address one or more of the leading risk factors for chronic disease: tobacco use, poor nutrition and physical inactivity,” according to the announcement. “Some of the programs also address key health system improvements and community supports to help Americans manage chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and prediabetes.”
The programs target populations hit hardest by chronic diseases, according to the announcement. The agency tallies that, each year, chronic diseases are responsible for seven of 10 American deaths and account for more than 80% of the $2.7 trillion the nation spends on medical care.
State and large city health departments in 17 states have $69.5 million to help prevent obesity, diabetes, heart disease and stroke and reduce health disparities through community and health system interventions.
In large cities and urban counties, small cities and counties and American Indian tribes in 23 states, $49.3 million is earmarked to use evidence- and practice-based strategies to foster healthy environments that make it easier for people to make healthy choices, with the help of multi-sector community coalitions of businesses, schools, nonprofit and community organizations.
Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health, or REACH, received $34.9 million across 22 states; $9.4 million will help a cooperative of national organizations strengthen community infrastructure to use population-based strategies to improve health; $11.3 million is slated to support health and wellness in Indian populations; and $4.2 million would reduce obesity in high-obesity areas, in six states through six universities.
“For decades, the nation focused too much on sick care, treating people after they became ill, rather than true healthcare, preventing people from getting sick in the first place,” Jeffrey Levi, PhD, director of The Trust for America’s Health, said in a press release. “These grants and the Prevention Fund help turn that equation on its head, putting priorities in the right place.”