Healthy People 2000 and Healthy People 2010

To identify all of the health-related concerns identified by members of the health community would be a monumental undertaking far.  However, in 2003, the institute of medicine released a list of priority health concerns that they believed need particular attention.  Among these priority concerns are:

·         Treatment of asthma

·         Coordination if care for the 60 million persons with chronic health conditions.

·         Reduction in the development of diabetes.

·         Development of evidence-based cancer screening.

·         Enhanced rates of immunization, particularly for flu and pneumonia.

·         Improved detection of depression, which is now inadequately diagnosed and treated.

·         Aggressive promoted prevention of cardiovascular disease, presently the leading killer of American adults.

·         Concerted efforts to reduce the rate of nosocomial infections (infections that occur as a result of medical care) that kill an estimated 100,000 Americans annually.

·         Reduction of tobacco dependence through cessation and prevention of smoking.

·         Widened availability of prenatal care.

While improvements in these areas are greatly needed, the Institutes of Medicine have no specific programs in place at this time to address them.  In comparison, a well-established and ongoing program, Healthy People 2000, has established specific goals and objectives to improve the health of Americans in many of these areas.  A brief description of this ongoing program follows.

In 1991 a U.S government document titled Healthy People 2000: National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives outlined a strategic public.  The plan included 300 health objectives in twenty-two priority areas.  Forty-seven of the 300 objectives were defined as “sentinel ones, that particularly significant goals that could be used to measure the progress of the 1990s health promotion objectives.

Progress toward achieving the objectives was assessed near the middle of the decade and reported in a document titled Healthy People 2000: Midcourse Review and 1995 Revisions.  Although process was reported in some areas, little or no progress was reported in many.  Subsequently, a new plan, called Healthy People 2010: Understanding and Improving Health, was formulated, refined, and is now being implemented.

Healthy People 2010:  Understanding and improving Health is a health promotion program intended to be implemented at all levels, ranging from individual involvement through multinational cooperative efforts, including Health for All in the 21^st Century, a World Health Organization health promotion initiative.  Although the goals of healthy people 2000:  National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives and Healthy People 2010:  Understanding and improving health are similar, the later focuses on the projected needs of the United States during the first decade of the new century.  Newly emerging demographics, such as the increasing number of older adults, and technologies, including new vaccines and HIV antiviral drugs, are better addressed in Healthy People 2010: Understanding and Improving Health.

Central to the design of Healthy People 2010: Understanding and Improving Health are two paramount goals: 
(1) increasing quality and years of life, and 
(2) eliminating health disparities in areas such as gender, race, and ethnicity, as well as income and education level.  These goals in turn provide twenty-eight more focused objectives.  Progress in accomplishing these objectives is anticipated through the manipulation of the behavioral, biological, and environmental determinants of health as they relate to ten of the leading health indicators: 
(1) physical activity, 
(2) weight management, 
(3) tobacco use, 
(4) substance abuse, 
(5) responsible sexual behavior, 
(6) mental health, 
(7) injury and violence, 
(8) environmental quality, 
(9) immunization, and 
(10) access to health care.

The success of Health People 2010:  Understanding and Improving Health will not be known until nearer the end of the decade.  However, if its goals are ultimately reached, Americans can anticipate an improved quantity and quality of life.