We know from research that health status is influenced by multiple factors including genetics, social circumstances, environmental exposures, health care, and behavioral patterns. What we might not fully realize is that behavioral patterns have the single greatest influence on personal and population health. This means that achieving better health at lower cost will require improvements in health promotion and prevention at the community level. The 3-4-50 framework can be a helpful tool for focusing these strategies.
3-4-50: A Focusing Framework for Community Health Improvement
3-4-50 is a community health improvement strategy based on evidence that three health behaviors elevate risk for four chronic conditions that together cause more than fifty percent of deaths.
- The three health risk behaviors are unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle, and tobacco use.
- The four chronic conditions are cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, and diabetes.
- These four conditions cause more than 50 percent of all deaths in that vast majority of communities.
We know from research and experience that our health behaviors can be influenced by the environments where we live, learn, work, and socialize. Accordingly, community health interventions work best when we are able to create collective impact by providing consistent supports for healthy behaviors across settings. 3-4-50 is designed to support collaborative community strategies that potentially engage:
- Individuals and families;
- Businesses and employers;
- Health care systems, insurers, and clinicians;
- Community, non-profit and faith-based organizations;
- Early learning centers, schools, colleges, and universities; and
- State and local government.
The Evidence for 3-4-50
The 3-4-50 concept was originally developed by the Oxford Health Alliance in response to global concerns about chronic disease. The evidence indicates that the core elements of 3-4-50 are strikingly relevant in the US at the national, state, and community level. For example:
- There is strong evidence the 3-4-50 risk factors (individually or in combination) elevate risk for cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, and diabetes in the U.S. (HealthyPeople.gov).
- The 3-4-50 diseases do in fact account for 50 percent of total deaths in the vast majority of communities.
- There are many evidence-based interventions consistent with 3-4-50 that can be implemented in the community, the clinic, the school, and the workplace.(Community Preventive Services Task Force, US Preventive Services Task Force).
- Assuming evidence-based interventions are effectively implemented, the near-term (1-2 year) impact of a 3-4-50 approach should include better health behaviors, better screening rates, and improvements in clinical indicators related to each disease. There may also be improvements in health service utilization and reductions in preventable hospital utilization for some higher risk populations. (Community Preventive Services Task Force, US Preventive Services Task Force).
- The longer-term impacts on disease rates, death rates, and health spending can only be predicted based on evidence that populations with healthier lifestyles tend to live longer and spend less on preventable conditions. Even marginal reductions in disease development can have a substantial impact on health and economic indicators over time.
3-4-50 interventions are aimed at supporting healthy living choices by individuals and families. Ideally these interventions are consistently implemented in health care settings, school settings, workplace settings, and additional community settings. Using evidence-based recommendations from the US National Prevention Strategy as a guide, a 3-4-50 project might include the following interventions for Healthy Eating, Active Living, and Tobacco-Free Living:
- Helping people recognize and make healthy food and beverage choices
- Increasing access to healthy and affordable foods in communities
- Implementing organizational and programmatic nutrition standards and policies
- Assuring food safety and improving nutritional quality of food supply
- Supporting policies and programs that promote breastfeeding
- Assessing physical activity levels and providing education, counseling, and referrals
- Supporting workplace policies and programs that increase physical activity
- Facilitating access to safe and affordable places for physical activity
- Encouraging community design and development that supports physical activity
- Promoting and strengthening school and early learning policies and programs that increase physical activity
- Supporting comprehensive tobacco free and other evidence-based tobacco control policies
- Expanding use of tobacco cessation services
- Using media to educate and encourage people to live tobacco free
Initiatives like these can be implemented community-wide or within particular settings (e.g. health care, schools, or workplace). They can also be focused on the general population or on special populations with particular needs (e.g. children, seniors, medically underserved, persons with disabilities).