Data Stories: Oral Health Needs Index (OHNI) Case Study

The development of the Oral Health Needs Index (OHNI), an interactive mapping tool designed to address Oral Health in the Context of Social Justice and Health Equity through the Development of a National Oral Health Needs Index (OHNI): Meaningful data to transform oral health. It gives health professionals, policy makers, researchers, planners, community organizations and others the tools they need to connect the health and well-being of individuals to visualized information in ways that make it easy to understand health data, determinants of health, community partnerships and more.

Examining Oral Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Elderly (1) Critical Learning Systems, Inc. (2) Fullerton Laboratory for Spatial Technology at Middle Tennessee State University (3) GEO Mental Consulting, Inc. Oral health disparities in the US are related to age, income, and race or ethnicity. For a case study examining elderly access to oral health providers, we used standardized Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) indicators to calculate an index value for census tracts. The index values, transit layers, and dental provider locations were visualized on an ArcGIS Dashboard which served as the analytic platform for a StoryMap about oral health access for 65+ residents of two Massachusetts counties.