The Surgeon General created and published a report in 1979 called, “Healthy People: The
Surgeon General’s Report on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention”. Its overall goal was to establish
and maintain a healthy society for all people. Since then, an updated version of this was released every
decade.
On December 2, 2010, Healthy People 2020 was launched. It included several topics not seen in
the three decades prior such as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health”, “Early and Middle
Childhood”, and “Sleep Health”.
The objective of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender health is to eliminate health
disparities in the LGBT community and to increase efforts to improve the health of LGBT individuals to
ensure they can have health enriched lives. Some of the disparities include “Reductions in disease
transmission and progression, increased mental and physical well-being, reduced health care costs, and
increased longevity (“Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health”). In order to improve LGBT health,
there have been efforts provide supportive social services and to increase cultural competency in
workplaces.
Sleep health is also an objective of Healthy People 2020. Length of sleep in the United States has
been decreasing significantly over the last few years. This lack of sleep can lead to problems like
exhaustion, lack of attention, and low alertness in the short term as well as some long-term health
problems. In 2008, 71.6% of adults got sufficient sleep. The goal for Healthy People 2020 is 72.8%
