Women's Health USA 2003

PREFACE AND READER’S GUIDE

"Healthy Women Build Healthy Communities" is the principle that guides the work of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to improve women's health. As an agency in the United States Department of Health and Human Services, HRSA is charged with assuring access to quality health care through a network of community-based health centers, maternal and child health programs, and State, Territorial, and community HIV/AIDS programs. In addition, HRSA's mission includes supporting individuals pursuing health careers in medicine, nursing, and many other health disciplines. HRSA fulfills these responsibilities by collecting and analyzing timely and topical information that identifies health priorities and trends that can be addressed through program interventions and capacity building.

HRSA's Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) and the Office of Women's Health are pleased to present Women's Health USA 2003, the second edition of the Women's Health USA data book. To reflect the ever changing, increasingly diverse population and its characteristics, Women's Health USA 2003 will selectively include emerging issues and trends in women's health. Data and information on incarcerated women, immigrant women, breastfeeding, medication use, bleeding disorders, and HRSA programs and populations are a few of the new topics included in this edition. Where possible, every effort has been made to highlight racial and ethnic disparities as well as sex disparities.

The data book was developed by HRSA to provide readers with an easy-to-use collection of current and historical data on some of the most pressing health challenges facing women, their families, and their communities. Women's Health USA 2003 is intended to be a concise reference for policymakers and program managers at the Federal, State, and local levels to identify and clarify issues affecting the health of women.

Women's Health USA 2003 is modeled after another data book produced by HRSA, Child Health USA. Now in its thirteenth edition, Child Health USA has become a useful tool for family advocates, policy makers, and organizations to track key indicators of child and adolescent health. The books address common themes, including population characteristics, health status, and health services utilization. Together, the two publications should be considered companion documents.

In these pages, readers will find a profile of women's health from a variety of data sources. The data book brings together the latest available information from various agencies within the Federal Government including the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Commerce, and Justice. Non-Federal data sources were used when no Federal source was available. Every attempt has been made to use data collected in the past five years.

It is important to note that the incidence and mortality data included is generally not age-adjusted to the 2000 population standard of the United States. This affects the comparability of data from year to year, and the interpretation of differences across various groups, especially those of different races/ethnicities. Without age adjustment, it is difficult to know how much of the difference in morbidity and mortality rates can be attributed to different age distributions. Also, presentation of racial and ethnic data may appear different on some pages as a result of the design and limitations of the original data source.

Women's Health USA 2003 is available online on the HRSA Office of Women's Health website at www.hrsa.gov/womenshealth. In the effort to produce a timely document, some of the topics covered in Women's Health USA 2002 were not included in this year's edition because new data were not available. For coverage of these issues, please refer to Women's Health USA 2002, also available online.

Women's Health USA 2003 is not copyrighted. Readers are free to duplicate and use the information contained in this publication. Please provide any feedback on this publication to the HRSA Information Center at 1-888-ASK-HRSA or www.ask.hrsa.gov. Single copies are available at no charge from the HRSA Information Center, Circle Solutions, Inc., 2710 Prosperity Avenue, Suite 200, Fairfax, VA 22031, 703-902-1243 or 1-888-ASK-HRSA.