Although there has been a significant improvement in the prevention of HIV/AIDS among many Americans, new and significant challenges remain. HIV continue to threaten the health of many Americans especially Hispanic/Latino community. HIV tends to affect anyone irrespective of race, gender, and socioeconomic status, the level of education, age or even sexual orientation among others. To help address these challenges, the USA as a country has adopted the Healthy people 2020 initiative.
There has been a terrific progress among the general public especially in areas regarding HIV education, prevention, social protection as well as treatment following the implementation of the 2020 healthy initiative goals. Commitments to increase funding in the health sector by the federal government will also go a long way in facilitating the realization of the healthy people 2020 initiative goals. Moreover, the Healthy People 2020 initiative has set clear defined short term and long term goals that are highly achievable. The short term goals seek to identify national health priorities while addressing the needs of critical research, evaluation and data collection.
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Public awareness and understanding of health, determinants of disease and disability are expected to promote efforts towards boosting health improvement in all. The step to involve multiple sectors in the growth of services is also a good indication of the will to preserve and restore good health. Some of the long-term goals put in place include getting health equity and reduction of preventable disease. I also believe that the parameters to monitor progress and effectiveness of the initiative are also mostly measurable especially for the short term goals (Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicators: Social Determinants of Health, 2014).
According to CDC report (2017), black women occupy about 59% of the sum of women living with HIV. However, through the initiative, there have been apparent variations in the HIV infections among women between 2010 and 2014. A decline of 40% has been recorded in the diagnosis. The greatest decline has been noted in black women, which reported at 42%. A combination of a public awareness campaign and increased accessibility to clinics have also contributed to this change. Some of these measures include screening and testing, preexposure prophylaxis for women at higher risk and treatment of people living with HIV. Statistics showed that the goal to monitor chronic disease prevalence is achievable. The methods used were reasonable and efficient. However, monitoring of general health status was not as easy to determine or document.
With a couple of approaches put in place such as the High-Impact Prevention framework, there are chances that by 2020, HIV rates among the Americans will relatively reduce by more than 10 percent. This approach adopts both structural as well as behavioral interventions that are channeled towards the most at risk groups in the given geographical regions. However, a decline in disparities between black women, Hispanic women and white women is still unknown. The measures of inequality used were the Index of Disparity method, absolute rate difference as well as the diagnosis disparity ratio. The findings indicate improvement although differences remains a challenge. The goal to monitor differences and inequality may not be achievable because it was only able to track disparity between women of different race and ethnicity. The report does not feature different gender, disability or people of different socioeconomic status. Special needs groups of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender are also left out (McCree et al., 2017).
Furthermore, there is no consensus on the best method to use to help monitor health disparity. An ideal statistical method would need both an absolute and a relative measure. A non-statistical method would use the three criteria mentioned above. The preferred methods are the absolute rate difference and the diagnosis disparity ratio. These methods are often employed by Healthy People 2020 and the National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States 2020 (NHAS) to measure progress in the social determinants of health and HIV diagnosis indicators (CDC report details US progress toward meeting 2020 public health goals, 2017).
The most challenging initiative goal to monitor was that of the quality of life and general well-being. There are no parameters to indicate satisfaction and social comfort. Collective participation in activities is also very vague, and it can vary significantly from one individual to another. In short, studies indicated that custom made public awareness campaigns could only benefit women from different social determinants. These include women who live with challenges of poverty, educational backgrounds, health and employment opportunities. These problems may slow down the prevention strategies that are in place.
Initiative goals are crucial to public health since they help in monitoring the progress of the health of the American people. Moreover, they also guide the National government on areas they should focus. The public health sector is also able to custom make their outreach programs so that they fully benefit their intended discussion group. Emphasis should be placed on prevention measures to be communicated through social outreach programs. A framework that relates social, interpersonal structures will help to improve on the advances made.
References
CDC report details US progress toward meeting 2020 public health goals (2017). Washington: The Advisory Board Company. Retrieved from https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/docview/1858099377?accountid=33337
Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicators: Social Determinants of Health 2014. https://www.healthypeople.gov/sites/default/files/HP2020_LHI_Soc_ Determ_0.pdf.
McCree, D. H., PhD., Sutton, M., M.D., Bradley, E., PhD., & Harris, N., PhD. (2017). Changes in the disparity of HIV diagnosis rates among black women - united states, 2010-2014.(). Atlanta: U.S. Center for Disease Control.
