Preventing strokes: considerations for developing health policy.

As the national movement for health care reform gives priority to activities that will achieve better and more efficient delivery of health care services, the cost-effectiveness of services will need to be calculated in some type of standard fashion. Although the cost-effectiveness of preventing and controlling acute diseases (for example, through mass immunization programs) has been well appreciated, less attention has been paid to the chronic diseases, which, in fact, account for the majority of illness and death in the United States today. This paper uses prevention of a common chronic disease, stroke, as a model to illustrate how cost savings measures may be developed and used to guide public policy.