Healthy People 2000 at Mid Decade

THE nation's health goals for the year 2000 were set forth with the 1990 release ofHealthy People 2000,¹which reviewed the principal health challenges for Americans and identified in measurable terms the opportunities for health gains during the 1990s. The arrival of the decade's midpoint prompts an assessment of progress to date. For editorial comment see p 1149. Healthy People 2000was based on the previous experience with setting national health targets for the year 1990,²,³the results for which have been described elsewhere.⁴The targets contained inHealthy People 2000were developed between 1987 and 1990 through an extensive consultative and hearings process conducted and managed by the US Public Health Service (PHS) in partnership with the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine.⁵To provide guidance to the effort, a national consortium was formed that included the principal health officials of the 50