Measuring progress in Healthy People 2010

Background--Healthy People 2010 (HP2010) objectives are based on two overarching goals: 1) to increase years and quality of healthy life, and 2) to eliminate disparities among subgroups of the population. Four hundred and sixty-seven specific objectives consistent with these goals were outlined, baseline data were identified when available, and specific targets were set for the year 2010. This report discusses the techniques that are being used to measure progress toward these two goals. Process--In order to promote consistency in monitoring across different objectives, a minimum template of subgroups was adopted for the population-based objectives in HP2010. A workgroup of individuals representing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agencies involved in HP2010 was convened to consider the issues related to monitoring progress toward the two goals of HP2010. The workgroup concurred with the recommendations in this report. Recommendations--Progress toward target attainment can be monitored for all objectives with at least one data point beyond the baseline. For those objectives that are based on data for a population, progress toward target attainment can also be measured for subgroups of the population. Progress toward the elimination of disparity for individual population subgroups can be measured in terms of the percent difference between each subgroup rate and the most favorable or "best" subgroup rate in each domain. For purposes of measuring disparity relative to the "best" subgroup rate, all measures are expressed in terms of adverse events.