Leigh Carroll and Bridget B. Kelly, Editors
This paper was commissioned by the Vitality Institute, an organization with a mission to advance knowledge about
the evolving science and art of chronic disease prevention and health promotion in order to build healthier societies.
The paper is intended to inform the Vitality Institute Commission on the Prevention of Chronic Diseases in Working
Age Americans, a group of health and business leaders that aims to identify and support multi-stakeholder solutions
that will address the burden of chronic diseases and their associated costs by placing evidence-based prevention at the
center of health care policies and actions in the United States.
In recent years the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has produced several expert consensus studies on topics that
are directly relevant to this aim. This paper reflects the content of reports published since 2010 identified through a
search of the report database on the IOM website for keywords associated with chronic disease prevention and health
promotion (see Appendix A). The cutoff date was chosen to focus on reports with a recent review of the evidence base.
A subset of reports was selected for in-depth review on the basis of whether the reportsÂ’ charge or interpretation of
their charge included the primary topic of interest to the Vitality Institute. Report content was reviewed, grouped by
theme, and summarized.
This paper is derived entirely from these existing IOM consensus studies and does not include new analyses
of evidence or make new recommendations. The content therefore reflects committee-authored consensus studies
that underwent a rigorous review process to ensure that their findings, conclusions, and recommendations were well
grounded in the available evidence, which is fully articulated in the reports.
