The prevention and control of chronic diseases: reducing unnecessary deaths and disability--a conference report.

Effective, yet underused, preventive measures exist to ameliorate such important public health problems as hypertension, coronary artery disease, and cervical cancer. The First National Conference on Chronic Disease Prevention and Control was convened in September 1986 by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the Centers for Disease Control, Public Health Service, to disseminate information on successful chronic disease programs currently being implemented and to identify barriers to more wide-spread application of state-of-the-art prevention technology. This report briefly summarizes the deliberations of conference working groups (composed primarily of State and Federal public health officials) that addressed these issues. Numerous suggestions for improved surveillance, applied research, and training related to chronic disease prevention and control were offered, as well as ideas on organizing and marketing chronic disease intervention programs. The conference clearly identified a pressing need for a coalition of public health agencies and interested professional and voluntary organizations, as well as a coherent national agenda to combat chronic diseases.