What is healthy People 2020 ?
Healthy People 2020, is an initiative of the Department of Health and Human Services of the United States. Launched in December of 2010, the project has four major goals geared towards preventing disease and disability, eliminating health disparities and promoting quality of life and good health for all. In order to succeed in achieving it’s far reaching goals, the project tracks about 1,200 objectives broken down into 42 key topic areas, each representing a major area in public health.
The 42 major areas of public health under the healthy people 2020 project are alphabetically listed below;
A
Access to Health Services
Adolescent Health
Arthritis, Osteoporosis, and Chronic Back Conditions
B
Blood Disorders and Blood Safety
C
Cancer
Chronic Kidney Disease
D
Dementias, Including Alzheimer’s Disease
Diabetes
Disability and Health
E
Early and Middle Childhood
Educational and Community-Based Programs
Environmental Health
F
Family Planning
Food Safety
G
Genomics
Global Health
H
Health Communication and Health Information Technology
Health-Related Quality of Life & Well-Being
Healthcare-Associated Infections
Hearing and Other Sensory or Communication Disorders
Heart Disease and Stroke
HIV
I
Immunization and Infectious Diseases
Injury and Violence Prevention
L
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health
M
Maternal, Infant, and Child Health
Medical Product Safety
Mental Health and Mental Disorders
N
Nutrition and Weight Status
O
Occupational Safety and Health
Older Adults
P
Physical Activity
Preparedness
Public Health Infrastructure
R
Respiratory Diseases
S
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Sleep Health
Social Determinants of Health
Substance Abuse
T
Tobacco Use
V
Vision
These 42 objectives are measured using established targets, baseline data and more recently, socio-demographic data tabulated separately by gender, family type, disability, income education, race, Hispanic origin, marital status age, country of birth and geographic location.
The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is responsible for coordinating and evaluating these efforts to ensure the country meets the set objectives and public health professionals especially public health physicians, public health nurses and epidemiologists play key roles. According to a recently released report, the United States has met or exceeded 40% of its Healthy People 2020 objectives as at January 2017, however the report also noted that the major health indicators showed little to no improvement and others actually regressed in some areas.
Similar programs in developing countries like the vision 2020 in Nigeria ended up in huge failure largely due to lack of vision, lack of leadership, lack of commitment, nepotism and policy somersaults. Despite set backs in some areas the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) have made very significant progress in their quest to achieve their set goals and objectives.
