WELCOME!
Healthy women in healthy communities is important
to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources
and Services Administration (HRSA). HRSA is charged with ensuring
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 is pleased to present Women’s Health
USA 2006, the fifth edition of the Women’s Health USA
series. To reflect the ever-changing, increasingly diverse population
and its characteristics, Women’s Health USA selectively
highlights emerging issues and trends in women’s health. Data and
information on life expectancy, postpartum depression, food security
and smoking during pregnancy are a few of the new topics included
in this site. Where possible, every effort has been made to highlight
racial and ethnic as well as sex disparities.
This site 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 2006
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 from a variety of data sources.
The site brings together the latest available information from various
agencies within the Federal government, including the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S.
Department of Labor, and U.S. Department of 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 data included is 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 incidence
rates between groups can be attributed to different age distributions.
Also, presentation of racial and ethnic data may appear differently
on some pages as a result of the design and limitations of the original
data source.
Some of the topics covered in Women’s Health
USA 2005 were not included in this year’s edition because new
data were not available at the time of printing of the publication.
For coverage of these issues, please refer to the
Women’s Health USA 2005 Web site. The
National Women’s Health Information Center Web
site also has updated and detailed women’s and minority health data
and maps available at the State and county level and by age, race/ethnicity,
and sex.
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