Healthy People 2030, launched two years ago, includes 23 Leading Health Indicators. Public health officials in Vermont have used the Healthy People framework to create targets specific to the health needs of residents. Many health gains have been made, but more are needed, a state health official said.
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“Healthy People objectives may be used as a menu to options that organizations can choose from based on what best fits their population’s needs.”
— Paul Reed
Leaders who want to see where their communities measure up on health and set goals for improvement should look to Healthy People 2030, which is being used by policymakers around the U.S. to drive health gains, according to leaders who spoke at APHA’s 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo in November.
Coordinated by the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy People advances health improvements by setting national 10-year objectives on key health issues, tracking progress and sharing best practices. State and local health workers use Healthy People objectives as benchmarks and chart plans for progress.
Healthy People 2030, launched two years ago, includes 23 Leading Health Indicators, noted Rear Adm. Paul Reed, MD, director of the office within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The indicators are a select set of objectives on high-priority health issues and challenges.
While all of Healthy People 2030’s objectives are important, the Leading Health Indicators are chosen to draw attention to those that have the highest potential for impact.
New to the Healthy People framework in the latest round is an objective for civic engagement, which is shown to improve health and well-being by empowering people to be part of the electoral process. Social determinants of health also have a greater focus in the 2030 version of Healthy People, which includes objectives that call for increasing employment among working-age people, increasing the number of children living with at least one parent working full time and reducing the proportion of people living in poverty, among others.
“Healthy People objectives may be used as a menu to options that organizations can choose from based on what best fits their population’s needs,” Reed said during a session at APHA 2022.
Data continue to be added to the Healthy People 2030 website, making it a changing resource, said Carter Blakey, deputy director of the HHS office and APHA member.
Users can create custom lists of Leading Health Indicators, objectives and other usable information.
Among those who have customized their work is Vermont. Public health officials in the state have used the Healthy People framework to create targets specific to the health needs of residents. For Healthy Vermonters 2020, officials assessed the health status of residents during the last decade using Healthy People 2020 indicators.
Health in Vermont has improved in a number of areas, research shows. In health insurance, starting from a 2010 baseline of 88% of adults insured, Vermont increased to 95% insured by 2016, according to a recent report. Improvements were also made in increasing screenings for chronic diseases, decreasing HIV infections and supplying more residents with safe drinking water.
But challenges remain. For example, 14.3 per 100,000 Vermonters died by suicide in 2015, according to the report. The goal was to lower that number from a 13.0 per 100,000 baseline in 2010 to 11.7 per 100,000 by 2020.
Mark Levine, MD, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health and APHA member, said that state officials regularly engage with policymakers, government and health professionals through Healthy Vermonters assessments, strengthening connections to the public health community.
Levine was optimistic about Vermont’s health and committed to the Healthy People approach, which is continuing under Healthy Vermonters 2030.
“Our focus on equity and commitment will show up even stronger in the next decade,” Levine said.
For more information on Healthy People 2030 and the Leading Health Indicators, visit www.health.gov/healthypeople. For more on Healthy Vermonters, visit www.healthvermont.gov.
A version of this story was published on Public Health Newswire’s APHA Annual Meeting Blog.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
