"A pound of prevention": A foundational paper for redefining the public health debate in New Hampshire

While New Hampshire is often touted as one of the healthiest states in the country based on many broad health and social indicators, not all of New Hampshire is truly “healthy”; some geographic areas of the state are unhealthy. This perception of a healthy state is often a barrier to developing effective public health policy. Given this, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch launched the Citizens Health Initiative as a long term, broad-based coalition to improve the health of all New Hampshire citizens. A key component of the initiative is the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention policy team whose charge is to define a clearer picture of the health status of NH citizens.

The policy team membership includes stakeholders from public health, healthcare, government, business, citizens and policy makers. During 2006, this group discussed the best way to systemically change the health system by focusing on the underlying causes of illness and death and conveying the importance of public health initiatives. Ultimately, consensus was reached that fundamental change would require an array of initiatives that address not only personal behaviors, but the social, economic and health care environments that promote or tolerate these behaviors. The culmination of a years worth of deliberation and research is contained in ”A Pound of Prevention”, a document which provides a new and empirically driven direction for public health policy in New Hampshire.