In a , the Department of Health and Human Services said the U.S. has met or exceeded 40% of its objectives, but has also showed little to no improvement in other important health indicators and has actually regressed in some areas.
Rolled out in 2010, the Health People 2020 program outlined 26 indicators of national health and goals to be met in the following decade. The new report examined outcomes at the midway point.
According to a CDC spokesperson, "More than a quarter of 828 trackable objectives have met or exceeded their 2020 targets ... and a great majority of the 42 Topic Areas have at least one objective that has already met its national target."
For example, the rate of infant deaths per 1,000 live births decreased between 2006 (6.7) and 2013 (6.0), as did the total preterm live births before 37 completed weeks of gestation (12.7% in 2007 versus 11.4% in 2013), the report said.
Environmental air quality exceeded set 2020 goals, with decreases in both the proportion of children ages 3-11 years who were exposed to secondhand smoke (52.2% in 2005-2008 versus 41.3% in 2009-2012) and exposure to bad air quality (2.2 billion person-days in 2006-2008 versus 982 million in 2012-2014).
The nation also made important strides in terms of tobacco goals -- with the proportion of students in grades 9–12 who smoked cigarettes in the past 30 days decreasing from 19.5% in 2009 to 15.7% in 2013, exceeding the 2020 target. Additionally, progress was seen in reducing the age-adjusted proportion of adults who were current cigarette smokers (20.6% in 2008 versus 17.0% in 2014).
Despite these advances, other important public health efforts -- including childhood obesity, adult obesity, average daily intake of vegetables, proportion of people with a usual primary care provider, and binge drinking within the past 30 days -- all showed little or no detectable change.
And some topic areas, particularly mental issues including age-adjusted rates of suicide and major depressive episodes, were doing worse.
"Although there has been improvement in some areas, most Topic Areas have one or more objectives with little or no detectable change or objectives which are getting worse (relative to their 2020 targets)," a CDC spokesperson told ľֱ.
He wrote: "Health disparities and inequities across various demographic groups for almost all Topic Areas also continue to be a concern, particularly across racial/ethnic groups and sociodemographic variables such as education and geographic location.
"Together, these results highlight areas of challenge for our nation, particularly when the national average or rate suggests otherwise, indicating potential areas for action through programs and policies."