The Chronic Disease Study of the California Department of Public Health

Abstract

PUBLIC health agencies have only recently begun to face the problem of chronic disease. The need for action has been amply demonstrated. The facts concerning the aging of the population and its influence on chronic disease mortality and morbidity are all well known. These facts offer no surprises to welfare agencies, hospitals, voluntary health agencies, physicians, nurses, and the millions of families who cannot ignore the day-to-day problems of chronic disease. Viewed historically, it is appropriate here in Boston to note that the first significant attack on this problem by a state health department was that launched in Massachusetts in 1926. Since that time, other states have entered this field but for the most part their activities have been limited to cancer control. Recent events provide concrete evidence of growing public health concern with the problem of chronic disease. First, the American Public Health Association, the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, and the American Public Welfare Association, working together in 1947, developed and published a -basic, joint