Healthy People 2020: An Overview - Essay Sample

Introduction

Healthy People 2020 is a prevention agenda developed by the Government of America in attempts to build a healthier nation. Thus, it is a statement of the objectives of national health, which are designed to identify the significant preventable threats to health. It focuses on the establishment of national objectives to minimize the threats. This paper shall, therefore, answer various questions related to "Health People 2020."

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Interagency Workgroups

Healthy People 2020 consists of 42 interagency workgroups "National Center for Health Statistics, and Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion." The 42 interagency workgroups are the leaders and managing experts who focus on the 42 topics within the HP2020. Besides, they cover a broad range of essential areas such as Health and Respiratory Disease, Access to Health Service, Disability, as well as Injury and Violence Prevention. The above mentioned are a small sample of the topic areas that the interagency workgroups will fall. Lastly, the workgroups classify data sources for tracing issues that revolve around their distinct topics.

Outline of Health People 2020 Objectives

A detailed overview of HP2020 objectives exists in their data tool (DATA 2020). From this database, all the goals are defined clearly in simple language. Similarly, the baseline of understanding HP2020, together with the target for each objective, is described. Furthermore, the various users who access the database can have a clear picture of national data and trends traced by HP2020. The data is also broken down into distinct demographics such as sex, ethnicity, race, income, and other data points that can spread out the information (Healthy People 2020, n.d). Also, the data that comes from more than 200 sources are channeled into the DATA 2020 site. The data is then processed and separated to generate a user interface.

Health Statistics

Some of the critical questions the NCHS strives to answer are; how many Americans Smoke? What is the leading cause of death in America? Are emergency rooms more crowded than they used to be? How many Americans are obese? Such data is collected by the NCHS to assess the causes and trends of concern that affect the health of Americans (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). The data is obtained from various sources, including medical treatment facility information, interviews, and patient health records. All this versatile data is reviewed and broken down into controllable details, and then sent to different agencies. HP2020 gets data from NCHS and uses the information to do the development of infographics and data interpretation. The final result shows areas of discrepancies within the 26 health indicators (Hines, n.d).

Success Measurement

HP2020 submits data continuously to the NCHS that gauges targets set and how close is HP2020 to achieving its objectives. The initial targets were established in 2010 with progressive reviews before and after the 2015 survey. The final evaluation is in 2020. The progress of specific goals is reviewed to identify issues with the obtained data (Hines, n.d).

Moreover, the HP2020 site has constant updates, and that offers the status of the 26 top health indicators. They display a simple and easy to interpret pie chart listing the percentage of objectives met, improvements, little to no change, worsening, and baseline data (HP2020, 2017). The process is well managed and provides necessary information to both stakeholders and interested parties to trace improvements. In instances where the objectives are unmet, this does not indicate failure, but rather an opportunity to change and adopt best practice and assess if they are put in place in the relevant form by healthcare facilities and medics.

References

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017, November 13). About NCHS - NCHS Fact Sheets - Health Statistics: Measuring our Nation's Health. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/factsheets/factsheet_health_statistics.htm

Healthy People 2020. (n.d.). 2020 Topics and Objectives - Objectives A-Z | Healthy People 2020. Retrieved from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives

Healthy People 2020. (n.d.). How to Use DATA2020 | Healthy People 2020. Retrieved from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/How-to-Use-DATA2020

Hines, R. (n.d.). Public Health Learning Modules - Module 01 - Part 3: Healthy People and the National Center for Health Statistics [Video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeopro.com/aptrmodules/phlm/video/75910069

Healthy People 2020. (2017, December 2). Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicators: Progress Update | Healthy People 2020. Retrieved from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/leading-health-indicators/Healthy-People-2020-Leading-Health-Indicators%3A-Progress-Update