Healthy People Initiative
- LAST REVIEWED: 30 January 2014
- LAST MODIFIED: 30 January 2014
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756797-0082
- LAST REVIEWED: 30 January 2014
- LAST MODIFIED: 30 January 2014
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756797-0082
Introduction
The Healthy People initiative is a program of national health objectives set by the US Department of Health and Human Services for each decade. The Healthy People initiative emerged in the United States following the creation of the World Health Organization in 1948 and the Lalonde Report in Canada in 1974. The initial report, Healthy People: The Surgeon General’s Report on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare 1979, cited under Through the Years), was released in 1979 and set national health objectives to be achieved by 1990, and the scope and range of objectives to promote health in the United States have been update and expanded each decade since then. It now sets the health promotion and disease prevention agenda for the nation. Concurrent with efforts by the United States, a similar focus on national and international objective setting grew with the World Health Organization’s Alma-Ata Declaration in 1978 and their Health for All by the Year 2000 movement. This article traces the Healthy People initiative from its early beginnings in 1979 to its current role in American health policy. Challenges in setting objectives and measuring progress are explored. For more information see the Oxford Bibliographies article Population Health Objectives and Targets by Lawrence W. Green.
General Overviews
These articles provide general overviews of Healthy People in the United States from 1979 to the present. Breslow 1987 and McGinnis 1990 provide overviews of the early objective-setting process in the 1980s and 1990s. Green and Fielding 2011 provides a detailed history of the initiative and traces the evolving social context and national concerns, and the scientific evidence base, that underlie changes in goals and objectives over the decades.
Breslow, L. 1987. Setting objectives for public health. Annual Review of Public Health 8.1: 289–307.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.pu.08.050187.001445
This thoughtful review of methods of setting long-range measurable goals in the United States and beyond explores the changing focus from mortality to enhancing health implicit in the national health objectives. The process of designing objectives for 1990, the necessity of state efforts to achieve goals, and the difficulty in tracking these goals are described.
Green, L. W., and J. Fielding. 2011. The US Healthy People initiative: Its genesis and its sustainability. Annual Review of Public Health 32:451–470.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031210-101148
This detailed history of the development of Healthy People and the subsequent evolution of goals and objectives provides insight to the process, the ethical and political issues encountered, and remaining barriers. The authors summarize a range of firsthand lessons, which include a stronger link to the budget and responsibility for implementation to achieve the goals.
McGinnis, J. M. 1990. Setting objectives for public health in the 1990s: Experience and prospects. Annual Review of Public Health 11.1: 231–249.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.pu.11.050190.001311
The review details the process to develop and track the 1990 objectives, the progress to date, and the implications for the establishment of health objectives for 2000. McGinnis concludes that setting objectives is only the starting point, and if they are to be achieved, substantial commitment at all levels is necessary.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Abortion
- Access to Health Care
- Action Research
- Active Aging
- Active Living
- Addiction
- Adolescent Health, Socioeconomic Inequalities in
- Adolescent Risk-Taking Behavior in the United States
- Advocacy, Public Health
- Agricultural Safety and Public Health
- Air Quality: Health Effects
- Air Quality: Indoor Health Effects
- Alcohol Availability and Violence
- Alternative Research Designs
- Ambient Air Quality Standards and Guidelines
- American Perspectives on Chronic Disease and Control
- Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
- Arts in Health
- Asbestos
- Asthma in Children
- Asthma, Work-Related
- Attachment as a Health Determinant
- Behavior
- Behavior Change Theory in Health Education and Promotion
- Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
- Bicycling and Cycling Safety
- Bioethics
- Birth and Death Registration
- Birth Cohort Studies
- Board of Health
- Breastfeeding
- Built Environment and Health, The
- Business and Corporate Practices
- Cancer Communication Strategies in North America
- Cancer Prevention
- Cancer Screening
- Capacity Building
- Capacity Building for NCDs in LMICs
- Capacity-Building for Applied Public Health in LMIC: A US ...
- Cardiovascular Health and Disease
- Child Labor
- Child Maltreatment
- Children, Air Pollution and
- Children, Injury Risk-Taking Behaviors in
- Children, Obesity in
- Citizen Advisory Boards
- Climate Change and Human Health
- Climate Change: Institutional Response
- Clinical Preventive Medicine
- Community Air Pollution
- Community Development
- Community Gardens
- Community Health Assessment
- Community Health Interventions
- Community Partnerships and Coalitions
- Community-Based Participatory Research
- Complexity and Systems Theory
- Critical Health Literacy
- Cultural Capital and Health
- Cultural Safety
- Culture and Public Health
- Definition of Health
- Dental Public Health
- Design and Health
- Dietary Guidelines
- Directions in Global Public Health Graduate Education
- Driving and Public Health
- Ecological Approaches
- Enabling Factors
- Environmental Health, Pediatric
- Environmental Laws
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Ethics of Public Health
- Evidence-Based Pediatric Dentistry
- Evidence-Based Public Health Practice
- Family Planning Services and Birth Control
- Food Safety
- Food Security and Food Banks
- Food Systems
- Frail Elderly
- Functional Literacy
- Genomics, Public Health
- Geographic Information Systems
- Geography and Health
- Global Health
- Global Health Diplomacy
- Global Health Promotion
- Global Health Security
- Guide to Community Preventive Services, The
- Health Administration
- Health Communication
- Health Disparities
- Health Education
- Health Impact Assessment
- Health in All Policies
- Health in All Policies in European Countries
- Health Literacy
- Health Literacy and Noncommunicable Diseases
- Health Measurement Scales
- Health Planning
- Health Promoting Hospitals
- Health Promotion
- Health Promotion Foundations
- Health Promotion Workforce Capacity
- Health Promotion Workforce Capacity
- Health Systems of Low and Middle-Income Countries, The
- Healthy People Initiative
- Healthy Public Policy
- Hepatitis C
- High Risk Prevention Strategies
- Homelessness
- Human Rights, Health and
- Human Sexuality and Sexual Health: A Western Perspective
- IANPHI and National Public Health Institutes
- Immigrant Populations
- Immunization and Pneumococcal Infection
- Immunization in Pregnancy
- Indigenous Peoples, Public Health and
- Indigenous Populations of North America, Australasia, and ...
- Indoor Air Quality Guidelines
- Inequities
- Infant Mortality
- Internet Applications in Promoting Health Behavior
- Intersectoral Action
- Intersectoral Strategies in Low - Middle Income Countries ...
- Justice, Social
- Knowledge Translation and Exchange
- Knowledge Utilization and Exchange
- Law of Public Health in the United States
- Media Advocacy
- Mental Health
- Mental Health Promotion
- Migrant Health
- Migrant Worker Health
- Motor Vehicle Injury Prevention
- Multi-Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
- Nanotechnology
- National Association of Local Boards of Health
- National Public Health Institutions
- Needs Assessment
- Needs Assessments in International Disasters and Emergenci...
- Obesity Prevention
- Occupational Cancers
- Occupational Exposure to Benzene
- Occupational Exposure to Erionite
- Occupational Safety and Health
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
- Oral Health Equity for Minority Populations in the United ...
- Ottawa Charter
- Parenting and Work
- Parenting Skills and Capacity
- Participatory Action Research
- Patient Decision Making
- Pesticide Exposure and Pesticide Health Effects
- Pesticides
- Physical Activity and Exercise
- Physical Activity Promotion
- Pneumoconiosis
- Polio Eradication in Pakistan
- Population Aging
- Population Determinants of Unhealthy Foods and Beverages
- Population Health Objectives and Targets
- Precautionary Principle
- Prenatal Health
- Preparedness
- Program Evaluation in American Health Education
- Program Planning and Evaluation
- Public Health, History of
- Public Health Surveillance
- Public-Private Partnerships in Public Health Research and ...
- Public-Private Partnerships to Prevent and Manage Obesity ...
- Quackery as a Public Health Problem
- Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment
- Racism as a Structural Determinant of Health
- Radiation Emergencies and Public Health: Impacts, Prepared...
- Randomized Controlled Trials
- Real World Evaluation Strategies
- Reducing Obesity-Related Health Disparities in Hispanic an...
- Research Integrity in Public Health
- Resilient Health Systems
- Rural Health in the United States
- Safety, Patient
- School Health Programs in the Pacific Region
- Sex Education in HIV/AIDS Prevention
- Silicosis
- Skin Cancer Prevention
- Smoking Cessation
- Social Determinants of Health
- Social Epidemiology
- Social Marketing
- Statistics in Public Health
- STI Networks, Patterns, and Control Strategies
- Stillbirths
- Suicide
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Systems in the United States, Public Health
- Systems Modeling and Big Data for Non-Communicable Disease...
- Systems Theory in Public Health
- Traditional, Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative M...
- Translation of Science to Practice and Policy
- Traumatic Stress and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Tuberculosis among Adults and the Determinants of Health
- UK Public Health Systems
- Unintentional Injury Prevention
- Urban Health
- Vaccination, Mandatory
- Vaccine Hesitancy
- Vermiculite
- Violence Prevention
- Vulnerability, Intersectionality and Health in Migration
- War
- Water Quality
- Water Quality and Water-Related Disease
- Weight Management in US Occupational Settings
- Welfare States, Public Health and Health Inequalities
- Workforce
- Worksite Health Promotion
- World Health Organization (WHO)