Data for Steps to a HealthierUS

Secretary Thompson is leading the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Steps to a HealthierUS.  At the heart of this program lie both personal responsibility for the choices Americans make and social responsibility to ensure that policy makers support programs that foster healthy behaviors and prevention.

The Steps initiative envisions a healthy, strong United States where diseases are prevented when possible, controlled when necessary, and treated when appropriate.  This initiative is a bold shift in our approach to the health of our citizens, moving us from a disease care system to a health care system.

The Steps initiative advances President Bush's HealthierUS program, which uses all of the available resources of the federal government to alert Americans to the vital health benefits of simple and modest improvements in physical activity, nutrition, and behavioral choices such as eliminating tobacco and illegal drug use and encouraging health screenings.

Through the Steps initiative, Secretary Thompson's highest priority health issues are obesity, diabetes, and asthma because of the unprecedented epidemics that these diseases pose.

The measures listed here are a set of Healthy People 2010 objective measures relevant to tracking progress for the Steps to a HealthierUS initiative.  For more information about the Steps initiative, visit the Steps to a HealthierUS website at:
http://www.healthierus.gov/steps/index.html.