Million Hearts Initiative to Prevent 1,000,000 Hearts

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Million Hearts Initiative to Prevent 1,000,000 Hearts

In United States, heart attack and stroke are the first and fifth principal causes of death. Averagely, one person dies in America every four minutes out of stroke, and in every 43seconds, an individual dies out of heart attack (Wright, 2013). The Million Hearts initiative has taken a national initiative with a striving goal of preventing one million strokes and heart attacks by 2017. Every year, 1.5 million Americans suffer from heart attack and stroke with 2,200 people dying every day. Stroke and heart diseases are the leading cause of disability in the country with 3 million people reporting decreased quality of life and serious illness. These factors make the two diseases to be of public health importance. 

This initiative is through a collaboration of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This will be achieved by improving care for individuals seeking treating by inspiring a targeted focus on the “ABCS”. The ABCS refers to Aspirin for people at risk, Blood pressure control, Cholesterol management, and Smoking cessation that discourses the most important cardiovascular diseases risk factors and it will help in preventing stroke and heart attack (“The Million Hearts initiative”, 2016). Another goal is empowering the citizens to make healthy choices, such as, reducing sodium intake, preventing tobacco use and elimination of Trans fat. This is important as it reduces the number of persons seeking medical treatments of conditions like cholesterol or blood pressure thus preventing stroke and heart diseases.

It also activates the world to strive in leading a healthy life. The campaign also improves adherence and prescription of appropriate ABCS medications. The leading risks for stroke and heart disease are; overweight and obesity, diabetes, Poor diet and physical inactivity, cigarette smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Smokers, diabetic and obesity individuals are examples of groups of people with high risk of stroke and heart disease. Men have a higher heart attack risk than women

Collaboration

Collaboration is a dual effort of work groups or several individuals in accomplishing a project or a task. It is the ability of two or more organizations to view and contribute to the prevention of public health importance. Million Hearts is a private-public initiative involving key private organizations and multiple federal agencies including American Pharmacists Association, the American Heart Association, UnitedHealth Care, the Walgreens, the YMCA, among others. During its five years lifetime course, Million Hearts is hoping to secure participation and commitment from other partners in public health, health care, government and industry. Communally, these conglomerates will assist Million Hearts in advancing and leveraging existing cardiovascular prevention investments.

“The Million Hearts initiative” (2016), establishes that in the journey of one million heart attack and stroke prevention, everyone is required to be committed- employers, hospitals, individuals, pharmacies, communities and health care providers. Collaboration of each person will help the nation in achieving this goal by laying its commitments to the following. Staying strong through consuming healthy diet rich in fresh vegetables and fruits and low in saturated fats and Trans fat, cholesterol and sodium. Another commitment is getting up and getting active by taking at least a 30 minutes exercise several days in a week. Every person is required to prevent stroke and heart attack by learning the risk and understanding them. Individuals should know their ABCS as well as taking control of their heart health by following a physician instruction for treatment and medication.

Social Marketing

Social marketing is an exceptional public health activities promotional tool. It is a strategic and systematic planning process resulting to the intended program or practice. Its goal is promotional of voluntary behavioral change, resulting to improved societal and personal welfare and uses pro-health messages. The first social marketing element in this initiative is accentuated of the serious nature of the message by use of a strong campaign name. The campaign is described by the name of the program, Million Hearts initiatives. It states that saving million hearts starts with an individual, that is personally. It also states the importance of community or groups in fighting for million hearts. 

The logo of the organization uses a heart shape which illustrates the heart to be saved. The Million educational flyers is a form of MN PH intervention as it first illustrates the extent of the problem. This is by giving that one on every three death is caused by heart disease and stroke, the health care cost for heart attack, it’s the leading cause of preventable diseases and the number of attacks yearly (2 million). The flyer explains the role of public health workers and health care professionals in preventing 1 million strokes and heart attacks. 

One prevention measure according to the flyer is laying focus on ABCS; Aspirin when appropriate, Blood pressure control, Cholesterol management and Smoking cessation (Frieden & Berwick, 2011). These professionals should use team based care through utilization of clinical innovations. The innovations include monitoring of self-measuring of blood pressure, they should recognize and reward ABCS Excellency and they should use every person interacting with patients to the top of their license and skills. Another mode of intervention in this flyer is using and utilizing health IT. These professionals should use electronic health records plus other IT in health in identifying patients requiring support to help them improve their ABCS status as well as tracking their progress.

Lastly, the flyer explains the outcomes after intervention. It states that the health professionals, public health organizations and health care systems will by 2017 meet their goals as well as preventing 1,000,000 strokes and heart attacks. This will be achieved by 47% to 70% increased use of aspirin in secondary prevention, 46% to 70% blood pressure control increase, it will help 23% to 70% of individuals willing to quit smoking 20% sodium consumption reduction and trans fat will be reduced by 50%.

 In social marketing, Million Hearts has used animated video that is entertaining, funny and full of educative materials. The targeting audience is all citizens and individuals worldwide. This is because it affects all people irrespective of their age or social class. This YouTube is highly effective in reaching high risk population. This is because it encompasses all that is required from monitoring, treatment and managing condition. It states what products needs to be avoided like tobacco, slow sodium intake and others. The use of entertaining video makes the viewer interested to know what is going on and he/she will learn from it.

Risk Assessment

The 53 years male smoker ten year heart attack rate is 10%. The modifiable cholesterol risk factors are total cholesterol (mg/dl) is 212 which is a moderate risk and HDL (good cholesterol) is 90mg/dl which is very low. The modifiable risk factors for high blood pressure are blood pressure systolic which is 146mg/dl and lays at the borderline of high risk. The modifiable risk for smoking is very high as the client is a smoker.

The metabolic syndrome risk factors for my client are high blood pressure which is at 130/85mm Hg or higher. This shows that the client does not have a metabolic syndrome due to less than tree checks on heart attack risk calculator. This Million Hearts tool can be used as an intervention in an individual level. This possibility is because only measurements of few measures are required to fill. The intervention tool will help an individual in identifying what they are personally required to change or modify.

Conclusion

Million Hearts initiatives is one of the best ever initiative that is directed at preventing one million hearts by use of primary and secondary prevention measures. It has collaborated with other stakeholders to achieve its strategy by 2017. The program teaches about risk factors, prevention measures, lifestyle changes and consequences of heart attack. Heart attack and stroke is leading in causing deaths as preventable disease. Million Hearts initiative aims at teaching everybody on ways to change their lifestyle to prevent stroke and heart attack. 

References

Frieden, T. & Berwick, D. (2011). The “Million Hearts” Initiative — Preventing Heart Attacks and Strokes. New England Journal Of Medicine, 365(13), e27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/nejmp1110421

The Million Hearts initiative. (2016). The Nurse Practitioner, 41(2), 53-54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.npr.0000480685.29208.52

Wright, J. (2013). Million Hearts™: preventing a million heart attacks and strokes through public–private collaboration. Future Cardiology, 9(3), 305-307. http://dx.doi.org/10.2217/fca.13.15