Leading Health Indicators - Healthy People 2020

Leading Health Indicators - Healthy People 2020

Leading Health Indicators

Healthy People 2020 provides a comprehensive set of 10-year, national goals and objectives for improving the health of all Americans. Healthy People 2020 contains 42 topic areas with nearly 600 objectives (with others still evolving), which encompass 1,200 measures. A smaller set of Healthy People 2020 objectives, called Leading Health Indicators, has been selected to communicate high-priority health issues and actions that can be taken to address them.

Great strides have been made over the past decade: life expectancy at birth increased; rates of death from coronary heart disease and stroke decreased. Nonetheless, public health challenges remain, and significant health disparities persist.

The Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicators place renewed emphasis on overcoming these challenges as we track progress over the course of the decade. The indicators will be used to assess the health of the Nation, facilitate collaboration across sectors, and motivate action at the national, State, and community levels to improve the health of the U.S. population.

The Leading Health Indicators are composed of 26 indicators organized under 12 topics. The Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicators are:

Access to Health Services

• Persons with medical insurance (AHS-1.1)
• Persons with a usual primary care provider (AHS-3)

Clinical Preventive Services

• Adults who receive a colorectal cancer screening based on the most recent guidelines (C-16)
• Adults with hypertension whose blood pressure is under control (HDS-12)
• Adult diabetic population with an A1c value greater than 9 percent (D-5.1)
• Children aged 19 to 35 months who receive the recommended doses of DTaP, polio, MMR, Hib, hepatitis B, varicella, and PCV vaccines (IID-8)

Environmental Quality

• Air Quality Index (AQI) exceeding 100 (EH-1)
• Children aged 3 to 11 years exposed to secondhand smoke (TU-11.1)

Injury and Violence

• Fatal injuries (IVP-1.1)
• Homicides (IVP-29)

Maternal, Infant, and Child Health

• Infant deaths (MICH-1.3)
• Preterm births (MICH-9.1)

Mental Health

• Suicides (MHMD-1)
• Adolescents who experience major depressive episodes (MDE) (MHMD-4.1)

Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity

• Adults who meet current Federal physical activity guidelines for aerobic physical activity and muscle-strengthening activity (PA-2.4)
• Adults who are obese (NWS-9)
• Children and adolescents who are considered obese (NWS-10.4)
• Total vegetable intake for persons aged 2 years and older (NWS-15.1)

Oral Health

• Persons aged 2 years and older who used the oral health care system in past 12 months (OH-7)

Reproductive and Sexual Health

• Sexually active females aged 15 to 44 years who received reproductive health services in the past 12 months (FP-7.1)
• Persons living with HIV who know their serostatus (HIV-13)

Social Determinants

• Students who graduate with a regular diploma 4 years after starting 9th grade (AH-5.1)

Substance Abuse

• Adolescents using alcohol or any illicit drugs during the past 30 days (SA-13.1)
• Adults engaging in binge drinking during the past 30 days (SA-14.3)

Tobacco

• Adults who are current cigarette smokers (TU-1.1)
• Adolescents who smoked cigarettes in the past 30 days (TU-2.2)

Each of the 26 indicators listed under the 12 topics above will be tracked, measured, and reported on regularly throughout the decade.i
Learn more about the Leading Health Indicators development and framework.

Create a Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicators app

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) and Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) are challenging teams of developers and health professionals to co-design an application that will be used to help solve one or more of our Nation’s high-priority health problems.

Footnote

iPreparedness measures were not selected as Leading Health Indicators because of the newness of the topic to Healthy People 2020 and the lack of historical data. However, because of their importance to the health and safety of the Nation, HHS will continue to closely monitor the Healthy People 2020 Preparedness measures and, if necessary, elevate them to an LHI.