THE PUBLIC MIND: HEART ASSOCIATION DEFENDS ITS SPENDING

Dear Editor:

As local and state board volunteers of the American Heart Association, Missouri Affiliate, we feel that Walter Williams' column in the Nov. 29 issue of your newspaper, references the AHA's spending practices unfairly as a result of a study released to the media in June and a recent follow-up made by the Capital Research Center.

Williams' column emphasized spending for political activity. Last year, the Association of Missouri spent $1,064.20 for its support of a Coalition on Smoking and Health. The Association's contribution provides for its share of a lobbyist's fee, postal costs and expenses for the first annual Smoking Conference.

Through its office of Public Affairs, the AHA plays an active role in bringing public interest health issues to the attention of legislators and government leaders to help ensure a healthy, productive America. For over three decades, the AHA has been active in encouraging the federal government to expand its commitment to biomedical research and disease prevention programs. The AHA works in an active partnership with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and works closely with other institutes at the National Institutes of Health to gain vital scientific knowledge in the battle against heart and blood vessel diseases.

The AHA also supports legislation to discourage tobacco use and cigarette smoking a modifiable risk factor for heart and blood vessel diseases and it played a pivotal role in the recent prohibition of smoking aboard domestic airline flights.

We advocate the use of consumer health messages for smoking prevention, such as the use of stronger warning labels on cigarette packages, and we continue to work with our grassroots volunteer network to support state legislation to restrict smoking in public places. Forty-four states and more than 400 municipalities currently have some restrictions on smoking in public places. (Missouri is one of the states which does not.) The AHA also has developed partnerships with consumer groups and other health organizations to work for mandatory nutrition labeling to help consumers buy and prepare healthy foods to reduce their risk of heart and blood vessel diseases.

We wish to provide you with information that will help you and your readers better understand the work, accomplishments and expenditures of the American Heart Association.

In the 1988-89 fiscal year, the Association committed $70.7 million to support 2,646 scientists and their research projects, up from $65.3 million in 1987-88. Of the AHA's total expenditures in 1988-89, 32.1 percent of its income went to fund cardiovascular research. Of the $38.2 million was provided by the Association's 56 states and metropolitan affiliates such as Missouri.

The AHA also allocates a major part of its resources to cardiovascular education and community service programs. In 1988-89, the Association spent $46.2 million to carry out nationwide public education activities in schools, worksites and health care sites that encourage good health habits, warn of risk factors for heart disease and stroke and are aimed at ultimately prolonging life.

Another $24.3 million was spent on professional education, with thousands of physicians and scientists receiving and exchanging the latest results of research in scientific conferences focusing on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

To provide community services, the AHA spent $31.1 million. AHA and affiliate volunteers certified more than 2.9 million people in basic and advanced life support courses and screened 1.1 million for blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

The AHA reached more than 11.7 million Americans through its interactive public and professional education and community service programs.

Of its 1990 budgeted expenses ($4,037,000) the Missouri Affiliate (which services all areas of Missouri with the exception of Kansas City and its surrounding counties of Platte, Clay and Jackson,) allocates only 9.7 percent of its expenditures to management and only 13.8 percent of its expenditures to fund raising. All remaining funds are committed to the Association's research and education programs.

Throughout its history, the AHA has emphasized prevention as a primary means of achieving its mission "the reduction of disability and death from cardiovascular disease and stroke." For more than four decades, research has been its number one priority. Since 1949, when the Association became a publicly supported voluntary health organization, the AHA has invested more than $823 million in research. More than half of that 40-year total, some $489 million, was committed in the decade of the 1980s. The size of this financial commitment makes the AHA second only to the federally-sponsored National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

By working together with other voluntary health agencies, consumer groups and the federal government, the AHA is making real progress in the battle to reduce heart and blood vessel diseases. The U.S. age-adjusted death rates for heart attacks declined 46.9 percent from 1963 to 1986. Age-adjusted stroke rates are down 59.1 percent during the same period.

The AHA, united through its volunteers, will continue its commitment to work with the federal government and consumer and health organization to reduce the risks of heart and blood vessel diseases, the number one health problem in America.

Sincerely,

Sharon Williams, R.N.

Affiliate Board of Directors Member

Chris Sheets, R.N.

President, Local Chapter