Establishing a national culture of health and its values

In early 21^st century America there are several factors that have stimulated a growing momentum for creating a national “culture of health” in the United States. Among those precipitating factors are the following: the creation within the Department of Health and Human Services of the Healthy People Program, which publishes each year a report card of health, disease and mortality data broken down by gender, race, age and social/economic characteristics, which are compared annually with specific goals, including targets for reducing existing disparities for various groups of citizens at the end of each decade.