Every ten years the US Department of Health and Human Services sets health goals for the nation. They report on progress made in the previous decade and then reassess the goals. Data is still being collected on the 2010 goals and the final report is not due until 2011. However, it's believed that about 20% of the goals were achieved. About 41% of the 1990 measurable goals were achieved; 24% for the 2000 goals.
Some negative findings:
*There are more obese people than a decade ago. The goal for 2010 was to reduce the percentage of adults who are obese to 15%. At the time the goal was set, nearly 25% of all adults were obese. Today, about 34% of adults are obese.
*We eat more salt and fat, not less.
*There is a higher percentage of people with high blood pressure. In 2000, an estimated 28% of adults had high blood pressure. The goal was to reduce that to 16%. Now an estimated 29% of adults have high blood pressure.
*More children have untreated tooth decay. In 2000, about 16% of young children had untreated tooth decay. The goal was to reduce that to 9%. Now about 20% of children have untreated tooth decay.
*The proportion of births by cesarean section increased, not decreased. And the percentage of infants born very small or fragile has increased.
However, there has been some progress: vaccination rates increased; workplace injuries have decreased; and death rates from stroke, cancer, and heart disease are all declining. "To many health officials, simply making progress is a victory. An analysis of 635 of the nearly 1,000 targets for the past decade shows only 117 goals have been met. But progress has been made toward another 332. In other words, there was improvement in 70% of the measures."
Some say that the government set some lofty goals for this previous decade and it's expected that the new goals set for 2020 will be less ambitious and more realistic. They also hope to make the goals more inviting to the public. The federal health official that oversees the Healthy People project said, "We need to strike a balance of setting targets that are achievable and also ask the country to reach. That's a balance that's sometimes a challenge to strike." There is also a push to have the 2020 goals documented online along with links to websites and sources for nutrition and exercise advice, and other information to improve one's health. (Full Story)
I think it's good to have goals, but more help needs to be provided to actually reach those goals. The program lays out the goals, but looks to others to find ways to achieve those goals. The program doesn't provide any funding to meet the targets. If they are serious about achieving better health as a nation, more action needs to be taken to encourage and reach these goals. I think the push for putting the goals online and providing resources to people on nutrition and exercise information is good, but that's only a start. A greater effort needs to be done to improve our nutrition and eating habits, get our country more active, improve our health care system (we need a system that is more accessible and encourages preventative care. It should not be the case that 20% of children have untreated tooth decay), and incorporate the growing knowledge we have about the social determinants of health into public policy (instead of treating health simply as an individual responsibility).
To which the Iranian government replied, "We are happy to oblige."
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