Health Indicators
Introduction
Healthy People 2020 provides a comprehensive set of 10-year national goals and objectives for improving the health of all Americans. Healthy People 2020 contains 42 topic areas with more than 1,200 objectives. A smaller set of Healthy People 2020 objectives, called Leading Health Indicators (LHIs), have been selected to communicate high-priority health issues and actions that can be taken to address them.
Great strides have been made during the past decade. For example, life expectancy at birth increased and rates of death from coronary heart disease and stroke decreased. Nonetheless, public health challenges remain, and significant health disparities persist. As leaders in practice, nurses must continue to address ethically and socially responsible and equitable care. Read the Leading Health Indicators: Progress Update to learn about the status of each of the 26 indicators. Review epidemiologic data related to the health of your community in order to identify high-priority health issues and challenges.
In this Assignment you will provide an in-depth analysis of community-based epidemiologic data to gain an understanding of the health of your community as a whole. A review of data related to culturally and socially diverse populations and other indicators related to health will help you objectively define health problems and health trends in your community.
Healthy People 2020 emphasizes the importance of overcoming these challenges as progress is tracked over the course of the decade 2010-2020. The indicators will be used to assess the health of the nation, facilitate collaboration across sectors, and motivate action at the national, state, and community levels to improve health. You will examine and summarize relevant epidemiologic data, which covers:
incidences and distribution of health problems of concern, and
key indicators of the health of populations and communities.
Directions
Read the Leading Health Indicators: Progress Update to learn about the status of each of the 26 indicators. The nurse must explore this report and identify how the status of public and population health in your community parallels these findings. Write a 3-page persuasive paper (exclusive of title page and references) that addresses the criteria listed below.
Identify two key indicators that you view as problems in your community.
Report two observed disparities in health delivery systems and community services.
Identify three community leaders (by position) who you can meet with to review a proposed action plan.
Community public health data may be retrieved from the annual reports and the state public health website. The following websites will also help you obtain data that is specific to your community.
American FactFinder. (n.d.). Community facts. Retrieved from http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2017). National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/
County Health Rankings. (2017). How healthy is your community? Retrieved from http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/
The Kaiser Family Foundation. (2017). State health facts. Retrieved from http://kff.org/statedata/
U.S. Census Bureau. (2017). American fact finder. Retrieved from http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml
Assignment Requirements
Before finalizing your work, you should:
be sure to read the Assignment description carefully (as displayed above);
consult the Grading Rubric (under the Course Resources) to make sure you have included everything necessary; and
utilize spelling and grammar check to minimize errors.
Your writing Assignment should:
follow the conventions of Standard English (correct grammar, punctuation, etc.);
be well ordered, logical, and unified, as well as original and insightful;
display superior content, organization, style, and mechanics;
be double spaced and in 12-point Times New Roman font; and
use APA 6th Edition formatting and citation style.
