A new challenge for America: the National Cholesterol Education Program.

Blood Institute (NHLBI) initiated its highly regarded and extremely successful National High Blood Pressure Education Program (NHBPEP). The NHLBI is mandated by statute to ensure that research advances are rapidly disseminated into practice. The NHBPEP was, therefore, a logical Institute response to the wealth of scientific evidence that clearly demonstrated the serious adverse health consequences associated with elevated blood pressure and the effectiveness of specific therapies in mitigating those consequences. The NHLBI is once again faced with a similar wealth of scientific evidence, this time relating to elevated blood cholesterol, and once again its response will include a national education program. On November 15, 1985, the NHLBI initiated a National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP). Epidemiologic evidence implicating elevated blood cholesterol levels as an important risk factor for coronary heart disease has been accumulating for years. However, until last year there was no strong clinical evidence that cardiovascular risk could be lowered by interventions that lower blood cholesterol levels. Without the missing clinical evidence, the NHLBI believed that there was insufficient scientific justification for a concerted national cholesterol education effort. were announced. The trial results demonstrated that the risk of initial episodes of coronary heart disease could be substantially reduced in hypercholesterolemic middle-aged men through the use of currently available cholesterol-lowering agents and dietary modifications. Immediately after the announcement, the NHLBI began to develop plans to ensure the widest possible dissemination of the CPPT results. Included in the