New plan unveiled to reduce cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes in Minnesota

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The State of Minnesota has a new plan to tackle cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes.

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) says nearly one in two Minnesota adults in 2021 were living with diabetes or cardiovascular conditions such as coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol.  That same year, more than 8,568 Minnesotans died of cardiovascular disease, 2,384 of stroke and another 1,575 of diabetes; respectively the second, fifth, and eighth leading causes of death in Minnesota.  MDH says these three conditions combined are responsible for approximately one in every four deaths in Minnesota annually.

Now, the Minnesota Action Plan to Address Cardiovascular Disease, Stroke, and Diabetes 2035 (MN 2035 Plan) lays out detailed strategies and example actions that supporters say when implemented at the institutional, local, regional, state, and tribal levels will save lives, reduce health disparities, and improve health and well-being.

“Cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes have enormous and far-reaching impacts on Minnesotans and Minnesota’s communities,” says Minnesota Commissioner of Health Dr. Brooke Cunningham.  “The MN 2035 Plan is a road map and a call to action for communities, health care organizations, community and organizational leaders, and individual advocates to collaborate to prevent, treat, and manage these diseases through 2035.”

The MN 2035 Plan focuses on three overall goals to better prevent, manage, and treat diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke, especially within those communities facing the highest rates of those diseases:

–          Elimination of racial, geographic, and other health inequities that lead to higher rates of cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes for certain populations in Minnesota.

–          Removal of barriers to good health and well-being.

–          Increased access to affordable and culturally appropriate prevention strategies, clinical services, and self-management options for those who have, or are at risk of experiencing, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

“The MN 2035 Plan is not the end point in the effort to reduce the occurrence of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes,” says Dr. Courtney Jordan Baechler, MN 2035 Plan Leadership Team co-chair and medical director, Healthy Equity and Health Promotion at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.  “Rather it is a starting point meant to be built on and added to over the next decade and beyond.”

MDH says the strategies for the MN 2035 Plan were developed over a two-year period.  The process included community engagement events and a statewide survey of 540 Minnesotans.  Participating organizations included the American Heart Association, American Association of Diabetes Educators, Arrowhead Area Agency on Aging, Bemidji Indian Health Service, Minnesota Black Nurses Association, and many others.

“These diseases unfairly affect some Minnesotans more than others due to many long-standing structural and social inequities, biases, and barriers that have resulted in segregation and exclusion from important resources and social supports,” says MN 2035 Plan Leadership Team Co-Chair and Executive Director of the Metropolitan Center for Independent Living Jesse Bethke Gomez.  “This plan’s commitment to accessibility, diversity, inclusion, and equity will advance health and well-being for all—the fundamental principles of who we are as a democracy.”