Leading Health Indicators, Healthy People 2020
Leading Health Indicators Framework
The Healthy People 2020 LHIs were selected and organized using a Health Determinants and Health Outcomes by Life Stages conceptual framework. This approach is intended to draw attention to both individual and societal determinants that affect the public’s health and contribute to health disparities from infancy through old age, thereby highlighting strategic opportunities to promote health and improve quality of life for all Americans.
Determinants of Health and Health Disparities
Biological, social, economic, and environmental factors—and their interrelationships—influence the ability of individuals and communities to make progress on these indicators. Addressing these determinants is key to improving population health, eliminating health disparities, and meeting the overarching goals of Healthy People 2020.
Health Across the Life Stages
The LHIs will be examined using a life stages perspective. This approach recognizes that specific risk factors and determinants of health vary across the life span. Health and disease result from the accumulation (over time) of the effects of risk factors and determinants. Intervening at specific points in the life course can help reduce risk factors and promote health. The life stages perspective addresses one of the four overarching goals of Healthy People 2020: “Promote quality life, healthy development, and health behaviors across all life stages.”
