A prevention lens on the roles of an Australian Centre for Disease Control

The Prevention Centre primarily works with population health research and policy partners to better understand the systems that create and perpetuate chronic disease in the Australian population, and to identify potential solutions. We believe an Australian CDC could be well placed to build on our work and provide strong national leadership to boost investment and action on chronic disease prevention.

An appropriately funded CDC could communicate the evidence on the importance and value of system-based solutions to new, broader audiences, including the public, to build social licence for effective prevention. It should also provide new, nationally coordinated mechanisms for distilling and sharing evidence, experience and learnings across jurisdictions.

Key messages

To enhance the prevention of chronic disease in Australia a CDC should:

• Promote wider recognition of the value of prevention to reduce the burden of chronic disease
• Champion systems thinking approaches for the prevention of chronic disease
• Enable health and other sectors to measure and address the co-benefits of preventive action
• Support data solutions for chronic disease risk factors and outcomes
• Enhance policy implementation and focus on equity when evaluating impact.

This paper is based on our submission in December 2022 to the Australian Government’s consultation on the roles and functions of the CDC. The submission includes further suggestions about priorities such as policy implementation, investment in prevention research, accountability and workforce development.