Prevention for a Healthier America: Investments in Disease Prevention Yield Significant Savings, Stronger Communities,

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Abstract:

Investing $10 per person per year in community-based disease prevention could save the country more than $16 billion annually within five years, according to a report from the Trust for America’s Health. Key community-based prevention programs would promote physical activity, good nutrition or smoking cessation. Such programs would decrease rates of Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure by five percent in two years; heart and kidney diseases and stroke by five percent in five years; and arthritis, types of cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by 2.5 percent in 10 to 20 years. The report also calculated potential savings for individual states. For example, in five years the report projects that Washington, D.C. will save $57 million. The report is based on a model developed by the Urban Institute and studies conducted by the New York Academy of Medicine.