PREFACE AND READER'S GUIDE
"Healthy Women Build Healthy Communities” is the principle
that guides the work of the Health Resources and Services Administration’s
(HRSA) Office of Women’s Health. As an agency in the United
States Department of Health and Human Services, HRSA is charged
with assuring access to quality health care through a network of
community-based health centers, maternal and child health programs,
and State, Territorial, and community HIV/AIDS programs. In addition,
HRSA’s mission includes supporting individuals pursuing careers
in medicine, nursing, and many other health disciplines. HRSA fulfills
these responsibilities by collecting and analyzing timely and topical
information that identifies health priorities and trends that can
be addressed through program interventions and capacity building.
HRSA’s Office of Women’s Health is pleased to present
Women’s Health USA 2005, the fourth edition of the
data book. To reflect the ever changing, increasingly diverse population
and its characteristics, Women’s Health USA 2005
will selectively include emerging issues and trends in women’s
health. Information and data on household composition, maternity
leave, contraception, and adolescent pregnancy are a few of the
new topics included in this edition.
Where possible, every effort has been made to highlight racial and
ethnic disparities as well as sex/gender differences.
The data book was developed by HRSA to provide readers with an
easy-to-use collection of current and historical data on some of
the most pressing health challenges facing women, their families,
and their communities. Women’s Health USA 2005 is
intended to be a concise reference for policymakers and program
managers at the Federal, State, and local levels to identify and
clarify issues affecting the health of women.
In these pages, readers will find a profile of women’s health
at the national level from a variety of data sources. The data book
uses the latest available information from various agencies within
the Federal Government, including the U.S. Departments of Health
and Human Services, Agriculture, Labor, Commerce, and Justice. Non-Federal
data sources were used when no Federal source was available. Every
attempt has been made to use data collected in the past 5 years.
It is important to note that the incidence and mortality data included
are generally not age-adjusted to the 2000 population standard of
the United States. This affects the comparability of data from year
to year, and the interpretation of differences across various groups,
especially those of different races and ethnicities. Without age
adjustment, it is difficult to know how much of the difference in
morbidity and mortality rates between groups can be attributed to
different age distributions. Presentation of racial and ethnic data
may appear different on some pages as a result of the design and
limitations of the original data source.
In an effort to produce a timely document, some of the topics covered
in Women's Health USA were not included in this year’s
edition because new data were not available. Please refer to Women’s
Health USA 2004 for coverage of these issues.
Please provide feedback on this publication to the HRSA Information
Center at 1-888-ASK-HRSA or ask@hrsa.gov.
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