My virtual lunch companions for the day were the dutiful members of the HHS Secretary’s Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020, who held a high noon Webinar to update the world on their progress toward creating objectives for Healthy People 2020.
Today's meeting alerted me to the coming launch of StateOfTheUSA.org, which promises to "assemble high-quality measures and data that can be used to assess the progress of the United States." As part of its pre-launch activities (the site is up and running, but not fully functioning), State of the USA teamed up with the Institute of Medicine to release a list of the top 20 key measures that "reflect the overall health of the nation and the effectiveness of U.S. health systems."
I was thrilled to see that "physical activity" has made the cut.
The highlight of the report summary:
"Regular physical activity is an important contributor to health, and yet fewer than 50 percent of people in the U.S. report engaging in moderate physical activity," the committee said. It's proposed measure: the percentage of adults meeting the recommendation for moderate physical activity – at least five days a week for 30 minutes a day of moderate-intensity activity or at least three days a week for 20 minutes a day of vigorous-intensity activity."
Let's make sure that our legislators are reminded of this report during health care reform negotiations.
The press release, and link to the full report, are here.
Tom Richards
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