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Averting a global health crisis
Pragmatic policy interventions to prevent stroke
This policy brief draws on the latest data on stroke incidence, risks and economic impact projections to set out a series of pragmatic policy interventions to prevent stroke globally.
Population level prevention interventions
- Reduce inequities and other social determinants of stroke and cardiovascular disease by implementing the WHO HEARTS package and through targeted programs that promote and support access to exercise and healthier food choices for communities with poorest health outcomes.
- Implement taxation and control measures to address the impact of harmful substances such as tobacco, alcohol, sugar and trans-fats and use income from taxation to support NCD and stroke prevention programs.
- Establish multi-sectoral public health partnerships that can provide integrated solutions to address the socioeconomic and environmental drivers of stroke and cardiovascular diseases.
- Provide universal health coverage to support identification and low-cost management of clinical risk factors for stroke including high blood pressure and diabetes.
- Establish reliable and comprehensive data collection systems for stroke that include prevalence of stroke risk factors in the population.
Individual level prevention interventions
- Develop and implement a cardiovascular disease strategy that identifies and manages people at any level of increased risk of CVD by clinicians with screening, access to medication and supported lifestyle change.
- Employment and training of community-based health workers supported by eHealth technologies that create linkages that allow task shifting and sharing with clinicians as well as self-management and monitoring of risk factors by the public.
- Develop culturally relevant individual primary and secondary prevention strategies for identification and management of people at risk of stroke using eHealth technologies.
- Deliver on-going culturally relevant and motivational stroke awareness campaigns supported by risk factor education.
This policy brief outlines key challenges and opportunities to reduce the global burden of stroke through evidence-based interventions at policy and healthcare system level. drawing on WHO NCD Policy Best Buys and the World Stroke Organization–Lancet Neurology Commission ‘Pragmatic solutions to reduce the global burden of
stroke’.
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Averting a Global Health Crisis
As the second leading cause of death and third leading cause of combineed death and disability globally, action on stroke prevention is pivotal to progress on health and development goals. This policy brief sets out key interventions for governments and healthcare systems to address population and individual risk factors for stroke, including specific interventions to reduce the risk of secondary strokes.
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