Healthy People 2010/2020: Using leading health indicators to provide a snapshot of the national health objectives

The Healthy People 2010 Leading Health Indicators (LHIs) are a small subset of the 467 Healthy People 2010 objectives that were chosen to provide a snapshot of the health of the nation based on their ability to motivate, the availability of data, and their broad public health relevance. The LHIs were developed by an interagency workgroup within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), based on a report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). For this analysis, the original 22 LHI objectives have been supplemented with 7 additional objectives and 2 life expectancy measures for a total of 31 LHI measures, which span 11 of the 28 Healthy People 2010 focus areas. Using the most recent data available, we offer analysis on the LHIs by examining progress toward Healthy People 2010 targets and statistical significance of change and trend over time. Where data are applicable and reliable, we report statistically significant health disparities at the most recent data point and changes in disparity over time by racial/ethnic group, gender, education, income, location (geography), and disability status. To give context for the LHIs within Healthy People, we also compare progress and disparities for the LHIs to the Healthy People 2010 objectives as a whole. Finally, we discuss plans for a similar set of summary indicators for the next generation of national health objectives, Healthy People 2020, which is scheduled to launch in late 2010.