September 2022: Health Equity in Healthy People 2030
Editor in chief Lloyd F. Novick highlights new articles in the September/October 2022 issues of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice.
This September issue of the Journal of Public Health Practice and Management contains a special section “Health Equity in Healthy People 2030.” A commentary by Bishop and Reed points to the long-standing systemic inequities resulting in the socially and economically disadvantaged having poor health outcomes. The 1985 “Report of the Secretary’s Task Force on Black and Minority Health,” commonly known as the Heckler Report, resulted in the inclusion of health disparities and achieving health equity as priorities for the Healthy People initiative, the nation’s 10-year health agenda. The authors recommend the universal adoption of the Healthy People 2030 definition of health equity: “The attainment of the highest level of health for all people.” This requires a common baseline with an established set of goals and benchmarks. This must be coupled with a measurement system that informs our progress.
Two scientific articles in this section by Hoyer and colleagues focus on how Healthy People 2030 emphasizes and measures health equity. Healthy People shows how specific population groups perform on the 10-year objectives, including leading health indicators that track health behaviors and determinants of health. The data at the end of Healthy People 2020 showed that the health status of people varied by who they are, where and how they lived, and the community where they were born. Healthy People 2030 will continue to work toward the goal of achieving health equity by providing resources and tools to the field of public health. By monitoring progress toward the Healthy People 2030 objectives, communities can develop policies and interventions to improve health equity.
“How do we define and measure health equity? The State of Current Practice and Tools to Advance Health Equity” is the second article in the special section. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) conducted a review of peer-reviewed literature and other sources to identify tools and recommendations for measuring health equity. A range of tools and strategies to measure and track progress toward health equity are presented. These include health impact assessments, community health improvement plans, and adapting a “Health in All Policies” approach.
With our September issue, we are also publishing a supplement HRSA’s Investment in Public Health Training Centers. The public health workforce is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) Bureau of Health Workforce. This bureau includes both the Preventive Medicine Residency Program and the Public Health Training Centers (PHTCs). A previous JPHMP supplement described the preventive medicine residency program. This supplemental issue focuses on the PHTCs and their role in training the US public health workforce.
Related Posts:
- July 2022: Public Health Agencies Respond to Challenges
- May 2022: Healthy Behaviors
- March 2022: Public Health Surveillance
- January 2022: The Continuing Challenge of COVID-19 and Interventions to Address Health Disparities Associated with Structural Racism
- November 2021: Environmental Public Health and Healthy People 2030
- September 2021: Local Public Health Agencies
- July 2021: The Opioid Epidemic
- May 2021: COVID-19 Policy Implications
- January 2021: COVID-19 and Public Health–Looking Back, Moving Forward
Author Profile

- Lloyd F. Novick, MD, MPH, is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Public Health at the Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University. Previously, he was chair of this Department. He has served as the Commissioner of Health and Secretary for Human Services of Vermont, Director of Health Services for Arizona, and Director of the Office of Public Health for New York State. Previous academic positions include Professor and Director of the Preventive Medicine Program for SUNY Upstate Medical University, Professor and Chair of Epidemiology at the University of Albany School of Public Health, and Clinical Professor and Director of the Teaching Program in Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Vermont, College of Medicine. He is the Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. He is also editor of five books, including Public Health Administration: Principles for Population-Based Management; Public Health Issues in Disaster Preparedness; Community-Based Prevention Programs that Work; Public Health Leaders Tell Their Stories; and Health Problems in the Prison Setting. He is past president of the Association of Teachers of Prevention and Research (APTR) and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). He has received a number of national awards, including Special Recognition Award, American College of Preventive Medicine (2005); Duncan Clark Award, Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine (2003); Yale University Distinguished Service Award (2003); Excellence in Health Administration, American Public Health Association (2001); and the Arthur T. McCormack Award, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (1992). He is a graduate of Colgate University (BA), New York University (MD), and Yale University (MPH).
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