Forward for women's health: the state of women's health in Wisconsin.

Because of the magnitude of women's health issues within the larger context of public health and healthcare systems, this paper was written to help define the current status of women's health in Wisconsin. Utilizing critical women's health areas identified by the Wisconsin Women's Health Foundation and the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, 16 specific measures of women's health were chosen for this analysis. The most recent data available for each measure were collected with Wisconsin data being compared to national averages as well as to Healthy People 2010: Objectives for Improving Health targets. Wisconsin women fare better than national averages in nine of the selected health measures; however, there are still many improvements to be made in order to meet Healthy People 2010 targets. The areas where the most improvements are needed include binge drinking, tobacco use, diabetes, and stroke mortality. Other significant findings include the lack of uniformly collected data in the areas of domestic violence, osteoporosis, and mental illness.