What to know
The data, statistics, and strategies found in this toolkit can support your important efforts to improve cardiovascular disease (CVD) rates in women's communities.
Who should use this toolkit?
The tools and resources in this toolkit are designed to help public health professionals encourage their communities to take small steps toward developing healthier lives.
Public health professionals include community health workers and employees from federal, state, and local health organizations.
These partners are in a unique position to help raise awareness about women's heart health.
A health equity lens can also help address the needs of all your populations and help improve cardiovascular health for all.
How do I use this toolkit?
- Read and incorporate evidence-based policy tools and guides into your organization.
- Link to data and maps that highlight the burden of CVD and related conditions and successful interventions.
- Share messages and graphics with individuals and patients in your social networks.
Public health tools and resources
Explore policy tools and guides that can help public health professionals manage their community’s cardiovascular health.
Communication tools
"Live to the Beat" Campaign Partner Toolkit: This Million Hearts® and CDC Foundation campaign focuses on empowering Black adults to pursue heart-healthy lifestyles on their own terms—to find what works best individually and consistently—as they live to their own beat.
High Blood Pressure Communications Kit: Share these social messages, graphics, and resources to educate your audiences about hypertension.
Health Equity Guiding Principles for Inclusive Communication: Use this set of principles, resources, and specific suggestions on a variety of topics to help inform an inclusive approach to public health communications.
Health equity tools
Health Equity Indicators Toolkit: This toolkit presents health equity indicators (HEIs) across eight focus areas, or health equity themes, that influence inequities in CVD prevention, care, and management as outlined in the HEI Conceptual Framework for cardiovascular disease.
Focusing on Health Equity: Learn how Million Hearts® aims to advance health equity through policies and practices that provide access to resources and enable cardiovascular health for all.
Community-Clinical Linkages Health Equity Guide: Practitioners can use this guide to help incorporate health equity into community-clinical linkages (CCLs). CCLs are an effective approach for preventing and managing chronic diseases such as CVD.
Read these one-page "Field Notes" about efforts being made by CDC grant recipients who are working at state, local, and community levels to improve cardiovascular health nationwide.
Quick Maps of Heart Disease, Stroke, and Socio-Economic Conditions: View and download maps on heart disease and stroke showing national data, health care costs, and data on social determinants of health.
Evidence-based policy tools
Surveillance and Evaluation Data Resource Guide: This at-a-glance compilation of data sources can be used by program managers and evaluators in the planning and evaluation stages of heart disease and stroke prevention programs.
Health Systems Scorecard (HSSC) Version 2.0: CDC's HSSC Version 2.0 is a voluntary quality improvement tool to assess evidence-based chronic disease care management policies and practices.
The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Control Hypertension: Sectors and Strategies: Public Health Professionals: Take these actions prescribed for public health professionals—in their unique position to promote managing high blood pressure in their communities—to implement effective hypertension control strategies.
Guide to Community Preventive Services: Read this guide, which summarizes what is known about the effectiveness, economic efficiency, and feasibility of interventions to promote community health and prevent disease.
Spread the word
Share the following social media messages with your followers. Don't forget to tag @CDCHeart_Stroke in your posts and follow DHDSP and Million Hearts® on social media.
X (Twitter)
- High blood pressure accounts for 1 in 5 deaths among women in the U.S. and is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Be proactive about heart health and learn about the risk factors for high blood pressure. https://bit.ly/4brWEi6
- Health equity is more than an ideal—it's a requirement for a truly heart-healthy community. Disparities in heart health deepen based on gender, especially when coupled with race, ethnicity, and other social factors. Make health equity a primary focus in your practice. https://bit.ly/4boUvDT
- State and local health departments: @CDCHeart_Stroke's #GIS tools can help you track trends and disparities in #CardiovascularDisease in your community this #HeartMonth. https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/maps/index.htm
- Women often experience delayed recognition, diagnosis, and treatment for heart attacks. They deserve to be heard—especially when it comes to their hearts. Commit to defending your patients' heart health this American Heart Month. Empower women to raise their voices. #HeartMonth https://bit.ly/3OAuNCy
- Not all women are equally impacted by cardiovascular disease: Black women are nearly 60% more likely to have high blood pressure than White women. This American Heart Month, commit to increasing awareness of barriers to equitable health care. https://bit.ly/4bvEgF6
- State and local health departments: CDC's GIS tools can help you track trends and disparities in #CardiovascularDisease in your community this #HeartMonth. https://bit.ly/AHM23PT5
- Local @Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Heart Disease and Stroke trend data are available for your county! Enhance your efforts this #HeartMonth to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease (#CVD) with these maps and graphs detailing local trends in #HeartDisease and #stroke mortality by age, race, and ethnicity. https://bit.ly/AHM23PT6