Accelerate Action to Promote Health Aging and Reduce Risk Factors for Dementia
HHS Adds Sixth Goal: Accelerate Action to Promote Healthy Aging and Reduce Risk Factors for ADRD
The National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) calls for coordination across federal agencies to improve Alzheimer’s disease-related outcomes. NAPA mandated the development of an Advisory Council and The National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, an integrated national strategy to overcome Alzheimer’s disease, with five ambitious goals to guide federal efforts in addressing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD).
After carefully considering the evidence on risk reduction, which closely aligns with our broader efforts to support healthy aging, the Advisory Council adopted a recommendation led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to add a sixth goal to the Plan: Accelerate Action to Promote Healthy Aging and Reduce Risk Factors for ADRD. Goal 6, released on December 27, 2021, focuses on improving and better managing ADRD risk factors, including hypertension, physical and cognitive activity, diabetes, sleep, nutrition, depression, substance use disorders, hearing impairment, and oral disease. The new goal has several strategies and action steps that CDC and other federal partners are taking to understand and address ADRD risk factors.
Watch HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra’s MSNBC interview about the 2021 Update to the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease.