Chronic Disease Control Branch

Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Program (CDPP)

Our Program

Program Purpose

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is defined as a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels1. CVD can refer to several conditions including arrhythmia, heart disease, heart failure, heart attack, and stroke2. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in California3, the United States4, and worldwide1. A person dies every 33 seconds in the United States from CVD1. As high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is a leading risk factor for CVD5, CDPP focuses on reducing hypertension to reduce CVD and its corresponding death (mortality) and disease (morbidity).

Program Background

The Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Program (CDPP) is a program in the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) within the Chronic Disease Control Branch (CDCB). CDPP’s work aligns with the missions of our Department and Branch. The mission of CDPH is to advance the health and well-being of California’s diverse people and communities6, and the mission of CDCB is to prevent and optimally manage chronic disease to ensure all Californians experience good health and well-being7. CDPP’s goal for 2023 is to increase blood pressure control in adults with hypertension to decrease hospitalizations and deaths from heart attacks, strokes, and other CVD-related events and issues. CDPP’s goal for 2024 is to increase the cardiovascular health of Californians.

Program Funding

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides federal funding through their Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant (PHHSBG) Program. The PHHSBG Program supports 61 recipients including all 50 states, the District of Columbia, two American Indian tribes, five US territories, and three freely associated states8. CDPP is funded solely by the PHHSBG Program and has been since 2013. In fiscal year (FY) 2023, the PHHSBG Program allocated $146,000,000 across the 61 recipients8. California was allocated $10,515,205 in FY238 and CDPP was allocated $831,847 of the portion allocated to California.

For more information on the PHHSBG Program, please visit Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant (PHHSBG).

Current Objectives

CDPP’s work is guided by the Healthy People (HP) 2030 Objectives, data-driven national objectives to improve health and well-being over the next decade. HP 2030 Objectives span several topics and include three types of objectives (core, developmental, and research). In fiscal year (FY) 2023, CDPP’s HP 2030 Objective is Heart Disease and Stroke Core Objective 5 (or HDS-05), which is to “increase the control of high blood pressure in adults.”

For more information on HP 2030, please visit Healthy People 2030.

CDPP currently has three objectives to support the goal of increasing the percentage of adults in California with controlled high blood pressure:

Looking Ahead

As referenced in the “Current Objectives” section, CDPP’s work is guided by the Healthy People (HP) 2030 Objectives. Historically, CDPP has been more treatment-focused, or downstream, in its approaches. As such, for many years, CDPP’s HP 2030 Objective has been Heart Disease and Stroke Core Objective 5 (or HDS-05) which is to “increase the control of high blood pressure in adults.” However, CDPP is adjusting our previous course to more prevention-focused, or upstream, approaches. In other words, rather than focusing on helping people better manage their high blood pressure, we want to focus on people not developing or having high blood pressure. With that, CDPP opted to focus on a new HP 2030 Objective in fiscal year (FY) 24: Heart Disease and Stroke Core Objective 1 (or HDS-01), which is to “increase overall cardiovascular health in adults.” This will allow CDPP to provide more prevention-based support in areas such as improving access to healthy foods and safe physical activity as well as preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences (or ACEs).

For more information on HP 2030, please visit Healthy People 2030