Health Status in Utah by Race and Ethnicity /

An understanding of the health status of a population is necessary to plan, implement, describe, and evaluate public health programs that control and prevent adverse health events. A 1988 Institute of Medicine committee,1 in a report entitled, The Future of Public Health recommended that... "...every public health agency regularly and systematically collect, assemble, analyze, and make available information on the health of the community, including statistics on health status, community health needs, and epidemiologic and other studies of health problems." Utah's population is becoming increasingly diverse and many voices have expressed the need for health data on racial and ethnic populations in Utah. In addition, the United States has made elimination of health disparities one of its two overriding goals for the year 2010.2 If we are to eliminate disparities, we must first identify and understand them. This report is an attempt to provide health status data on Utah's racial and ethnic populations.