Operational definitions for year 2000 objectives: Priority Area 14, Maternal and Infant Health.

Healthy People 2000, with its Midcourse Revisions, presents 319 objectives to improve the health of Americans by the year 2000 (1,2). Because these objectives are national, not solely Federal, the achievement of these objectives is dependent in part on the ability of health agencies at all levels of government to assess objective progress. To permit comparison of local and State health data with national data and that of other States and localities, Healthy People 2000 objective 22.3 targets the development, dissemination, and use of collection methods that improve comparability among data collected by all levels of government. The objective states: