The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) recently released statistical methods and analytical tools that were instrumental in setting transparent, data-driven targets for Healthy People 2030 on a national level. NCHS – ODPHP’s data partner for Healthy People -- released these resources to aid public health decision makers in setting targets for their communities at state or local levels throughout the next decade.
Access the tools and learn how to use them on NCHS’s Target-setting page.
This is the first iteration of the Healthy People initiative for which NCHS created analytical tools for Healthy People 2030 workgroups to use in setting targets for objectives. Public stakeholders can now access two of these new analytical tools for target setting — the (1) Percent Improvement and Minimal Statistical Significance Tool and the (2) Trend Analysis Tool.
The process for setting Healthy People 2030 targets is transparent and replicable. NCHS and ODPHP worked together to create guidelines for the federal subject matter experts serving on the Healthy People 2030 workgroups to use when selecting data-driven targets. These federal experts were then responsible for selecting targets and used data-driven approaches whenever possible. They also considered subject matter knowledge, public health policies, and agency or national priorities.
Healthy People 2030 uses 6 target-setting methods for objectives:
- Percent improvement
- Percentage point improvement
- Projection
- Minimal statistical significance
- Maintain consistency with national programs, regulations, policies, or laws
- Maintain the baseline
To learn more about the history of target-setting in Healthy People and the statistical methods underlying the analytical tools, check out NCHS’s publication, Target Setting Methods in Healthy People 2030.
