Healthy People 2010 is an initiative sponsored
by the United States Department of Health and
Human Services (DHHS) that represents a
detailed agenda for health promotion and disease
prevention for the United States of America.
Fundamentally, it is a statement of national
health objectives designed to identify the most
significant preventable threats to health and to
establish national goals to reduce these threats.
Healthy People 2010 has two broad goals: to
increase the quality and years of healthy life for
individuals of all ages, and to decrease health
disparities among different regions of the country
and segments of the population.
Healthy People 2010 consists of 467 specific
health objectives in 28 primary focus areas (e.g.,
respiratory diseases, diabetes mellitus, cancer) to
be achieved by the end of the first decade of the
new century
. Each of the 28 focus areas (Table 1)
has a single goal that identifies the overall
purpose of the focus area and serves as the basis
on which the specific objectives are framed.
Many of the objectives have specific targets that
are numerically set, tracked, and evaluated by
using data from major national health sources.
Twenty-one such objectives from 12 of the 28
focus areas were designated as Leading Health
Indicators by DHHS for the purpose of monitoring
the progress of the nation in achieving the
Healthy People 2010 objectives. These indicators
include areas of major health priorities and will
serve to provide ongoing snapshots of the overall
health of the Nation.
Founded on earlier federal initiatives—namely
,
the 1979 Surgeon General’s Report,
Healthy
People
, and
Healthy People 2000: National Health
Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives
—the
Healthy People 2010 program
establishes
comprehensive national health objectives, serves
as a national road map for public health, and
provides a basis for the development of other
state and community health-related plans. The
focus areas and objectives of Healthy People
2010 were developed by various federal health
and public service agencies, with input from The
Healthy People Consortium—an alliance of more
than 350 national organizations (including the
American College of Clinical Pharmacy [ACCP])
and 250 state public health, mental health,
substance abuse, and environmental agencies.
Detailed information about Healthy People
2010 and specific focus areas and objectives can
be found at http://www.healthypeople.gov/.
These materials may be reproduced and
disseminated freely as part of local, regional, or
national campaigns to improve public health.
According to DHHS, this information is intended
to assist states, communities, professional
This paper was prepared by the 2001–2002 ACCP Public
and Professional Affairs Committee (all authors). Chair:
Karim Anton Calis, Pharm.D., M.P
.H., FASHP
, FCCP
. Staff
editor: Robert M. Elenbaas, Pharm.D., FCCP
. Received by
the ACCP Board of Regents on January 9, 2003.
Address reprint requests to the American College of
Clinical Pharmacy
, 3101 Broadway
, Suite 650, Kansas City
,
MO 64111; e-mail: accp@accp.com, or download from
http://www
.accp.com.