HHS announces Healthy People 2030 objectives

Healthy People 2030 — a 10-year plan addressing the nation’s most critical public health issues — is now available, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Aug. 18.

The Healthy People 2030 report outlines 355 priorities HHS intends to focus on over the next 10 years, including new objectives on opioid use disorder and youth e-cigarette use and creating resources for COVID-19. It was developed by the department’s Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and looks at a wide range of health conditions, health behaviors, populations and social determinants of health.

The report, which the ADA commented on in 2019, contains a number of baseline oral health objectives, including:

• Reducing tooth decay in children and adolescents.
• Increasing early detection of oral and oropharyngeal cancers.
• Increasing use of the oral health system.
• Increasing access to community water fluoridation.
• Reducing root surface decay in older adults.
• Reducing the number of edentulous adults aged 45 and older.
• Increasing the proportion of people with dental insurance and reducing the proportion of people who can’t get the dental care they need when they need it.
• Reducing added sugar consumption in people aged 2 years and over.
• Reducing proportion of adults aged 45 years and over with moderate and severe periodontitis.
• Increasing dental visits for low-income youth.
• Increasing proportion of children and adolescents with dental sealants on one or more molars.
• Increasing the number of states that have an oral and craniofacial health surveillance system.

To view a webinar of the Healthy People 2030 launch, visit the HHS YouTube page.