Healthy People 2020
Posted by Pauline Heidemann on Fri, Dec 30, 2011 @ 06:15 AM
As everyone is about to make their New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and get in shape, federal health officials have released a list of 12 “high priority” indicators of health, which the government will track over the next decade to determine the progress and status of the nation’s health. The 12 indicators are part of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Healthy People 2020 initiative.
“Healthy People is the nation’s road map and compass for better health, providing our society a vision for improving both the quantity and quality of life for all Americans,” said Howard Koh, MD, the Department of HHS’s Assistant Secretary for Health.
The Healthy People Initiative began in 1979 with a Surgeon General’s report, which set health targets to be achieved by 1990. It has been revised in 10-year increments ever since. Since its inception, many goals have been achieved or exceeded, including the number of deaths from coronary heart disease, which has fallen below the target of 203 per 100,000 cases to 160, and continues to decrease. Other achievements include significant increases in pediatric pneumococcal vaccination rates and reductions in the number of emergency department visits for asthma among children and adults, as well as the reductions in stroke deaths.
However, many goals fell short of the their targets. Although adult smoking rates declined from 23% in 2000 to 21% in 2008 (the most recent data reported by HHS), they fell well short of the goal of 12%, and in 2010 a target of 3.8 new-onset diabetes cases per 1,000 adults was the goal, but that rate increased by 40% to the current level of about 8 per 1,000.
The current top 12 health indicators are:
- Access to health services
- Clinical preventive services
- Environmental equality
- Injury and violence
- Maternal, infant and child health
- Mental health
- Nutrition, physical activity and obesity
- Oral health
- Reproductive and sexual health
- Social determinants
- Substance abuse
- Tobacco
All of the indicators will be tracked and reported on periodically throughout the next decade.
To read more about Healthy People 2020, click on http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/default.aspx.