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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.
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:
- Educate the general lay public and select population groups about the leading health indicators for Healthy People 2010.
- Motivate the general lay public and select population groups to engage in behaviors that are consistent with the targets established for each health indicator.
- Encourage members of the general population and select population groups to become participants in the work of public health in their local communities.
- 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.
- 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.