Menu

young girl drinking water from water fountain

Chronic Disease Prevention

Advancing evidence-based chronic disease prevention strategies

Our Impact

See all Chronic Disease Prevention Impacts

Children in physical education class
  • 10 years longer life among those with sickle cell disease
  • $15M budget appropriation to help 2 million with asthma
  • 13M low-income Californians meeting federal nutrition guidelines

Our Work

Chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and asthma are leading causes of death and disability in the U.S. They are also a growing health problem in lowincome countries around the world. These diseases disproportionately affect communities of color and low-income populations, and are responsible for close to 75 percent of all U.S. health care costs.

Successful prevention strategies begin with recognizing the complex interplay of social factors that drive chronic disease, including poverty, racism, education, access to care and local community environments.

At PHI, we oversee a diverse portfolio of cutting-edge chronic disease prevention programs that collectively work to address these social determinants of health, with an emphasis on policy and systems change to have the broadest impact.

Critical Issues

Pioneering Expertise

PHI Priority

Building Health Equity

PHI's Regional Asthma Management and Prevention program advocates for policy and systems changes to address asthma, asthma disparities, and social and environmental inequities. Thanks to their collaborative campaigns, California is now the first state in the country to list mold as a substandard housing condition. Their efforts have also resulted in two Medi-Cal policies that increase access to asthma home visiting services for people with poorly controlled asthma; and landmark regulations to help reduce a range of air pollutants in inequitably burdened communities across California, including the reduction of diesel pollution from trucks in low-income communities and communities of color.

Programs

young boy using banana as a telephone

PHI is Leading the Conversation

Read More

Work With Us

You change the world. We do the rest. Explore fiscal sponsorship at PHI.

Bring Your Work to PHI

Support Us

Together, we can accelerate our response to public health’s most critical issues.

Donate

Find Employment

Begin your career at the Public Health Institute.

See Jobs

Aerial view of wildfire smoke

Close

Tools to Protect Your Community from Wildfires & Extreme Heat

Communities across the U.S. and around the world are grappling with dangerous wildfires and extreme heat. Explore PHI's resources, tools, programs and impacts to help protect your community—with a focus on ways to reach systemically excluded groups with key resources and information, and invest in transformative solutions to promote safety, equity and resiliency.

Explore the resources

Continue to PHI.org