HHS
Report Finds Health Improves For Most Racial, Ethnic Groups But
Disparities Remain in Some Areas
For Immediate Release
Thursday, January 24, 2002
Contact: NCHS Press Office
(301) 458-4800
CDC Office of Media Relations (404) 639-3286
E-mail: paoquery@cdc.gov
Healthy People 2000:
Trends in Racial and Ethnic-Specific Rates for the Health Status Indicators:
United States, 1990-98. Statistical Note No. 23. 16 pp. (PHS) 2002-1237. View/download PDF 320 KB
HHS Secretary Tommy G.
Thompson today released a new report that shows significant improvements
in the health of racial and ethnic minorities, but also indicates that
important disparities in health persist among different populations.
Today’s report
presents national trends in racial- and ethnic-specific rates for 17
health status indicators during the 1990s. All racial and ethnic groups
experienced improvements in rates for 10 of the 17 indicators. At the same
time, the report also shows that despite these overall improvements, in
some areas the disparities for ethnic and racial minorities remained the
same or even increased.
"Our goal is to
eliminate disparities in health among all population groups by 2010,"
Secretary Thompson said. "While we are making progress, this report
shows how far we still have to go."
The report is part of
the Healthy People 2000, an HHS-led effort to set health goals for each
decade and then measure progress toward achieving them. The indicators
reflect various aspects of health and include infant mortality, teen
births, prenatal care, low birthweight as well as death rates for all
causes, and for heart disease, stroke, lung and breast cancer, suicide,
homicide, motor vehicle crashes, and work-related injuries. Infectious
diseases such as tuberculosis and syphilis are also included. The percent
of children in poverty and the percent of the population living in
communities with poor air quality round out the set of measures developed
to allow comparisons among national, State and local areas on a broad set
of health indicators.
One of the goals of the
Healthy People Initiative is to reduce disparities in health. Notable
progress was made in reducing the gap in syphilis case rates and stroke
death rates. However, for about half of the indicators the disparities
improved only slightly, and disparities actually widened substantially for
work-related injury deaths, motor vehicle crash deaths, and suicide.
"In many ways,
Americans of all ages and in every racial and ethnic group have better
health today," Surgeon General David Satcher said. "But our work
isn’t done until all infants have the same chance to thrive, all mothers
have equal access to prenatal care, and all Americans are equally
protected from cancer, heart disease, and stroke."
All racial and ethnic
groups experienced improvement in rates for 10 of the indicators: prenatal
care; infant mortality; teen births; death rates for heart disease,
homicide, motor vehicle crashes, and work-related injuries; the
tuberculosis case rate; syphilis case rate; and poor air quality. For five
more indicators – total death rate and death rates for stroke, lung
cancer, breast cancer, and suicide – there was improvement in rates for
all groups except American Indian or Alaska Natives. The percent of
children under 18 years old living in poverty improved for all groups
except Asian or Pacific Islanders, and the percent of low birthweight
infants improved only for black non-Hispanics.
"A clear lesson
for public health is that efforts to achieve progress for all must be
targeted and tailored to the needs of specific groups," said Dr.
Jeffrey P. Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), which prepared the report. "For example, the drop
in the syphilis rate followed an intensive campaign to eliminate syphilis
community by community."
HHS agencies are now
working on Healthy People 2010, the Nation’s public health agenda for
the current decade, and has identified a set of Leading Health Indicators
that are being tracked nationwide and in States and communities. While the
goals of Healthy People 2000 aimed at reducing disparities, the Healthy
People 2010 plan aims at the elimination of disparities in health among
all population groups.
The report, “Trends
in Racial and Ethnic-Specific Rates for the Health Status Indicators:
United States, 1990-1998,” can be viewed or downloaded at CDC
today also will issue a related study, “Recent Trends in Mortality Rates
for Four Major Cancers, by Sex and Race/Ethnicity - United States, 1990–1998.” That study will be available at noon at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/.