Healthy People 2020

Healthy People, the nation’s program for health promotion and disease prevention, is organized and facilitated through the Office of the Surgeon General.  Leading health indicators and priorities for public health initiatives are set for each coming decade, with Healthy People 2020 (HP2020) scheduled to be unveiled in early 2010.  Scientific experts, educators and advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender health, including Fenway Health management and staff, were very active in the development of Healthy People 2010 (HP2010).  This work resulted in the first-ever inclusion of “persons defined by sexual orientation” as a health disparities population in a Federal policy program for public health.  Fenway convened meetings that supported dissemination of existing science to support these efforts, lead to the creation of the National Coalition for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health, and provided leadership for writing the Healthy People 2010 Companion Document for LGBT Health, sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Fenway representatives and partners in the National Coalition for LGBT Health have maintained contact with and provided consultation to federal staff in the Healthy People Office throughout the closing decade, with in-person meetings and regular online contact in preparation for HP2020.  We have provided information and participated in meetings with Congressional members who have led the charge for full inclusion of LGBT people in federal benefit programs, such as Rep. Tammy Baldwin, and through the Center for Population Research in LGBT Health, we have rallied leading scientists in LGBT health to provide testimony at HP2020 regional meetings.  To better advocate for the inclusion of data related to LGBT health disparities and for the inclusion of LGBT experts in the Healthy People 2020 process, the Center teamed with the National Coalition to produce scientific briefs on the state of the LGBT evidence base for several topic areas.  The Center and the Coalition will present these briefs in organized public comment periods and to key leaders of Healthy People 2020.  

We created the briefs by surveying a wide group of LGBT health research experts about the strength of the evidence base in LGBT disparities.  Using Healthy People 2010 objectives as a template, survey respondents were asked to rate the evidence base showing areas of increased concern for one or more LGBT population groups.  We collated the answers and produced briefs for several topic areas, including Access to Quality Health Services, Cancer, Mental Health and Mental Disorders, Nutrition and Overweight, Substance Abuse, and Tobacco Use.  The briefs report “insufficient evidence” for many of the health objectives, reflecting the continued difficulty in assessing LGBT health disparities given the absence of LGBT data collection in many national health surveys.  However, responders did indicate that the science provides “strong” or “some” evidence of LGBT health disparities in a number of Healthy People objectives.  Among the health indicators with evidence for LGBT disparities are: core competencies in health provider training, colorectal cancer deaths, pap tests, suicide, adolescent suicide attempts, healthy weight in adults, obesity in adults, adolescent and adult use of illicit substances, binge drinking, alcohol consumption and adult and adolescent tobacco use.  The complete set of briefs can be downloaded from the Population Center for LGBT Health’s website.