Comparing racial and ethnic populations based on Healthy People 2010 objectives

Objective - The Healthy People 2010 initiative (HP2010) specified objectives for improving the health of the nation, established baseline values, and set specific targets to be achieved by 2010. HP2010 objectives are based on two overarching goals: First, to increase years and quality of life, and second, to eliminate disparities among subgroups of the population. In this report racial and ethnic populations are compared based on progress toward targets, the size of disparities, and changes in disparity for specific sets of objectives. Methods - Progress is measured in terms of movement toward or away from the target between the HP2010 baseline and the most recent data point. Disparities are measured as the percent difference between the rate for the racial and ethnic population with the best or most favorable rate and the rates for the other racial and ethnic populations. Changes in disparity are measured in terms of the percentage point change in the percent difference from the best group rate between the baseline and the most recent data point. Some comparisons can be made based on objectives with data for five populations (American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Hispanic or Latino, non-Hispanic black, and non-Hispanic white). Additional comparisons can be made for objectives with data for the three larger populations (Hispanic or Latino, non-Hispanic black, and non-Hispanic white). Results - Differences between populations in progress toward the targets for HP2010 objectives are observed; however, the majority of objectives was moving toward or had reached their targets for each population. Greater differences between racial and ethnic populations are evident in the size of disparities. Disparities for the American Indian or Alaska Native, the Hispanic or Latino and non-Hispanic black populations are greater than those for the Asian and non-Hispanic white populations. Between the baseline and the most recent data point, the number of objectives with increasing disparities was similar to the number of objectives with decreasing disparities and there was no change in disparity for most objectives. In order to achieve the two goals of HP2010, rates must improve and relative differences between populations must be reduced.