National Academies Press: OpenBook
« Previous: Executive Summary
Suggested Citation:"1 Charge to the Committee." Institute of Medicine. 1999. Leading Health Indicators for Healthy People 2010: Second Interim Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6381.
×

1
Charge to Committee

The public health community has drawn on its collective wisdom and experience to arrive at a set of objectives and benchmarks covering the entire field of public health. These are presented in the publication Healthy People 2010. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) turned to the Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP) of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a committee to consider issues relevant to the selection of a minimum of 2 leading health indicator sets representative of Healthy People 2010 for consideration by the Secretary of Health and Human Services by April 1, 1999. This committee consists of 10 members with expertise in topic areas including, but not limited to, public health, health promotion, health communication, epidemiology, biostatistics, health education, health policy, and health performance monitoring. This committee has convened for 3 meetings through December 15, 1998.

An acceptable set of leading health indicators will fulfill a number of functions. First, such indicators will be exemplary measures of key health behaviors and related outcomes that are known and understandable by the general population as well as demographically diverse population groups. Second, these indicators will be the object of routine data collection and analysis at the national, state, and local levels, with the potential availability of comparable data at community levels and for select population groups during the interval 2000 to 2010. This set of indicators will promote positive changes in knowledge, health behaviors and health determinants at the level of the individual and will also guide the development of policy and action plans within communities to ensure maintenance of change efforts. Further, it is expected that an ideal indicator set will consist of a reasonable number of unique indicators for which there is an understandable, thematic framework and a set of associated measures. Finally, the set of indicators must adhere to the majority, if not the totality, of criteria determined to be essential aspects of leading health indicators.

Ongoing communication with DHHS and ODPHP staff has led to further clarification of the charge to the IOM Committee on Leading Health Indicators for Healthy People 2010. Specifically, the committee understands that it will continue to provide expert advice to ODPHP to guide the development of essential criteria and thematic frameworks for potential sets of leading health indicators. In addition, it is understood that potential leading health indicators will address primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention issues as well as environmental and social determinants of health.

Suggested Citation:"1 Charge to the Committee." Institute of Medicine. 1999. Leading Health Indicators for Healthy People 2010: Second Interim Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6381.
×

Furthermore, the Healthy People 2010 vision of eliminating health disparities and improving the number and quality of years of healthy life will be integrated within the organizational framework of each potential set of leading health indicators. Finally, the committee understands that it is charged with review of the totality of Healthy People 2010 and selection of a small number of priority areas based on frameworks that accomplishes the following:

  1. Educate the general lay public and select population groups about the leading health indicators for Healthy People 2010.
  2. Motivate the general lay public and select population groups to engage in behaviors that are consistent with the targets established for each health indicator.
  3. Encourage members of the general population and select population groups to become participants in the work of public health in their local communities.
  4. Focus the energies of the public and select population groups to ensure that the actual health of the public is significantly improved by work on the priorities established by each indicator.
  5. Promote leading health indicator sets that have credibility in, and are supported by individuals, groups, organizations, health professionals, and others committed to the delivery of health care education and services to the general public and select population groups.

The remainder of this report describes specific activities that have been, or will be, completed to achieve the overriding goal of this consensus-building process—development of a minimum of two sets of leading health indicators for submission to the Secretary of Health and Human Services in April 1999.

Suggested Citation:"1 Charge to the Committee." Institute of Medicine. 1999. Leading Health Indicators for Healthy People 2010: Second Interim Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6381.
×
Page 5
Suggested Citation:"1 Charge to the Committee." Institute of Medicine. 1999. Leading Health Indicators for Healthy People 2010: Second Interim Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/6381.
×
Page 6
Next: 2 Criteria for Leading Health Indicators »
Leading Health Indicators for Healthy People 2010: Second Interim Report Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $47.00 Buy Ebook | $37.99
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

During Spring 1998, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) contracted with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Institute of Medicine (IOM) to conduct a multi phase project resulting in the development of sets of leading health indicators that would provide a 'face' for Healthy People 2010. Of equal or greater importance was the development of indicator sets that would attract and sustain public attention and motivation to engage in healthy behaviors. Development of such leading health indicators sets is intended to move the United States toward achievement of more positive health outcomes for the general population and for select population groups defined by race, ethnicity, gender, age, socio-economic status, level of education, and disability.

This second interim report presents a summary of the efforts of the IOM Committee on Leading Health Indicators for Healthy People 2010 to develop sample sets of leading health indicators that would meet the requisite functions of attracting and sustaining attention and motivating engagement in healthier behaviors by the public. Reactions to this report and more specifically, to the potential leading health indicator sets and suggested measures, will be solicited from the public health community as well as representatives of diverse consumer audiences through electronic communication, regional public meetings convened by DHHS, focus group discussions with target populations, and other information-gathering techniques. Review of information from these various sources will be summarized in a third and final report for DHHS to be published in April 1999. The third report will also include the committee's final recommendations regarding the functions to be fulfilled by leading health indicators, will define specific criteria underlying the selection of leading health indicators, and will identify specific sets of leading health indicators to be promoted and monitored during the decade 2000 to 2010.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    Switch between the Original Pages, where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  9. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!