Children

Goal: Improve the health and well-being of children.

Childhood is a critical period of growth and development — and a child’s experiences, behaviors, and health problems can have long-term impacts. Healthy People 2030 focuses on ways to directly and indirectly improve children’s health, safety, and well-being. 

Making sure children get timely developmental screenings and recommended health care services is key to finding health problems early, when they’re usually easier to treat. In addition, positive health behaviors — like getting enough sleep and eating healthy — can help prevent diseases and injuries in children. But there are important racial/ethnic and income disparities in these healthy behaviors and related health outcomes.   

Safe, stable, and supportive relationships are critical for children’s health, development, and well-being. Family-level interventions can help keep children safe and healthy. Strategies focused on children’s health and safety in early childhood education programs, at school, and in their neighborhoods can also help improve health outcomes for children. 

Objective Status

  • 3 Target met or exceeded
  • 8 Improving
  • 10 Little or no detectable change
  • 15 Getting worse
  • 6 Baseline only
  • 17 Developmental
  • 6 Research

Learn more about objective types