This time of year, many of us are thinking about personal health resolutions, such as eating better or exercising more. But it’s also an ideal time to consider how we can improve the health and well-being of adolescents. For more than three decades, a national initiative called Healthy People, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), has set national objectives and spurred activities at all levels to improve the health of individuals throughout the United States. Adults working with adolescents may want to incorporate some of these objectives into educational, out-of-school, family, and other settings and recognize that their efforts, when joined with those of many others, will help prevent disease and promote health.

Improving Adolescent Health: Progress to Date

Adolescence is a stage in life when young people are heavily influenced by their environment. Although those influences can sometimes be negative, there are also many positive opportunities to influence behaviors that can prevent disease and promote lasting health. Indeed, the decade from 2000 to 2009 saw improvements in several adolescent health objectives identified by Healthy People:¹

• The overall mortality rate for young adolescents (those ages 10 to 14) decreased.
• The percentage of high school students who smoked a cigarette in the past month decreased.
• The rate of adolescents ages 15 to 17 who became pregnant decreased.
• The percentage of high schools students who drove with a driver who had been drinking decreased.
• The percentage of adolescents involved in a physical fight in the past year decreased.

Updated information on these rates, on a state-by-state basis, can be found using the Office of Adolescent Health’s searchable map. Other objectives for improved physical activity and nutrition were not achieved. For instance, both moderate physical activity (30 minutes of activity per day, five days a week) and vigorous physical activity (cardio-fitness promoting activity for 20 minutes a day, three times a week) essentially stagnated between 1999 and 2009. Also, rates of obesity among adolescents ages 12 to 19 increased.

Healthy People 2020: A Renewed Focus on Adolescent Health

Healthy People 2020 (HP2020) emphasizes a focus on life stages, along with continuing efforts to change risky behaviors. The HP2020 goals serve as a reliable road map and trusted resource on the multiple ways in which disease prevention and health promotion can be achieved for adolescents. Parents, school officials, health providers and others working with adolescents may want to explore the 11 specific goals for adolescents:

1. Increase adolescent wellness check-ups.
2. Increase participation in extra-curricular & afterschool activities.
3. Increase connections between adolescents and other positive adult caregivers.
4. Increase successful transitions to self-sufficiency from foster care.
5. Increase educational achievement of adolescents.
6. Increase presence of breakfast programs in schools.
7. Reduce proportion of students offered, sold or given Illegal drugs on school property.
8. Increase proportion of parents who believe their adolescents are safe in school.
9. Increase number of middle and high schools with policies prohibiting student harassment related to sexual orientation & gender identity.
10. Decrease proportion of public schools with reports of serious violent incidents.
11. Reduce adult and youth perpetration of, and victimization by, crimes.

These are not the only HP2020 areas that concern this age group: In total, 167 objectives in 24 categories are relevant to adolescent and young adult health. However, this group of 11 goals fills gaps in how Healthy People is relevant for adolescents, and identifies high-return ways to improve adolescent health. To learn more about Healthy People and its goals for adolescent health, watch and listen to this recent webinar by ODPHP and its partners.

Implementing Healthy People in Your Community

There are several ways to incorporate HP2020 into your state and community:

Map-It. States and communities are encouraged to use the MAP-IT (Mobilize, Assess, Plan, Implement, Track) strategy to implement HP2020 locally. Check out your state’s plan for making progress on the HP2020 objectives.

Get to Know Leading Health Indicators. The Leading Health Indicators (LHIs) are a smaller set of HP2020 objectives that have been selected as high-priority for the different age groups, including children, teens and young adults. For example, improving the four-year high school graduation rate has been named an LHI. Starting this month, HP2020 will send monthly updates that highlight an LHI. The updates will showcase states, communities, or organizations that are addressing it in innovative ways and provide the latest data updates for the indicators. Sign up to receive the updates.

How do adolescents in your state and county compare?

You can also access tracking resources that reveal the health of adolescents in your own state and county. Use this information to find others in your state or community with common interests in improving health, and to plan programs based on specific data outcomes.

In Your State: America’s Health Rankings provides the longest-running state-by-state analysis of our country’s health. See how your state compares on 51 measures, from air pollution to binge drinking, that affect individuals of all ages. It also lays out ways to take action to improve health, whether it’s making a personal change like quitting smoking or exercising; supporting community initiatives that create safe and healthy environments in which to live and work; or creating health enhancing policies or programs. Also, for specific information on the health of adolescents in your state across five domains (mental health, physical health, reproductive health, substance abuse, and relationships) visit OAH’s searchable map.

In Your County: County Health Rankings shows how your county fares on four categories of health measures: health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors, and the physical environment, and then compares it to others in your state and across the nation. The site also has tailored action steps for working together with those from several different fields in your area to improve community health.

¹ For the full report on progress made on these and all Healthy People 2010 objectives, visit the Healthy People 2010 Final Review – Complete Report.