Phase I Report
Recommendations for the Framework and Format of Healthy People 2020

Appendix 8.
Feedback From Users of Healthy People

In 2002, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) launched a study examining how the Healthy People 2010 document was being used. It involved a self-administered questionnaire, which was distributed to representatives at the state, local, and tribal levels. Follow-up interviews were conducted to offer further insight into obstacles to use.

The study's overall conclusions were that Healthy People 2010 is a visible, practical document that is being used by public health agencies at the state and regional levels. Yet barriers to usage were identified, including a lack of implementation tools that could be used to achieve the objectives, and resource constraints. Many primary decision makers at the state level did not "buy-in" to the initiative because it did not help them respond to the needs of state legislatures. Other results suggested that tribes were less likely than other Healthy People Users to use the document for planning or research, and were more interested in using the participatory goal-setting properties of Healthy People 2010.

DATA2010 is an interactive database developed by NCHS. It contains the most recent monitoring data for tracking Healthy People 2010.³⁹ Less than a quarter of ASPE study respondents were familiar with DATA2010. Some non-users of the site reported preference for state data sources.

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Continue to Appendix 9. Questions that May Motivate Users to Seek Healthy People 2020 Information
Back to Appendix 7. Building on Past Challenges of the Healthy People Initiative
Return to Phase I Report Table of Contents

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Last revised: December 11, 2008