Cardiovascular Disease Prevention: The Role of Policy Interventions.

OPINION STATEMENT: Health outcomes in cardiovascular disease in the USA have generally been improving over the past several decades. Those gains have been related to both developments in prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. To further enhance improvement in health outcomes, including cardiovascular outcomes, health policies have been implemented to incentivize prevention. These policies have strong conceptual appeal and have been associated with improvements in some health metrics. However, robust research methods, accounting for bias and statistical confounding, are critical to confirm that these policies are associated with prevention of cardiovascular events for patients over time.