Healthy People 2020 Sexually Transmitted Diseases objectives: Assessment of progress towards national targets and elimination of disparities

Healthy People is a national initiative to promote health and reduce disease and disability through the setting and tracking of objectives and targets. Now in its fourth decade, the initiative continues to provide a framework for improving the nation’s health.  One of the four overarching goals of HP2020 calls for achieving health equity, eliminating health disparities, and improving the health of all population groups. The latest iteration, Healthy People 2020 is comprised of approximately 1,200 objectives organized into 42 topic areas. The HP2020 Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) topic area contains 18 objectives, 14 of which have national targets set for the year 2020.  The 4 major data sources used to track these objectives are the STD Surveillance System (STDSS), the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS), the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). An analysis of STD data produced from these sources for the years 2008 through 2012 was conducted. Preliminary results show that two-thirds of the STD objectives with data to measure progress are moving towards their HP2020 targets; however, results also show that racial, ethnic, geographic, and income disparities persist.  This presentation will detail results from the analysis of the 14 objectives with HP2020 targets, including progress towards meeting HP2020 STD national targets, and changes in racial, ethnic, and geographic health disparities that occurred during the years 2008 through 2012.