Oral Health
Why Is This Important?
In order to measure the effectiveness of the education, prevention and access programs across the United States, the US Department of Health and Human Services established the first set of national goals and objectives in 1980. 10-year targets are designed to guide national and state health programs to attain healthy lives that are free of preventable diseases and to reduce disparities for all people in the United States. Healthy People (HP) 2020 objectives are organized into priority areas and monitored through a set of indicators. HP 2020 reflects a collection of 1,200 objectives that are organized into 42 public health areas. There are 26 Leading Health Indicators organized into 12 topics, and oral health is included in the top 12 topics for the first time.1 In terms of oral health indicators, HP202 outlines 17 national objectives, and 33 sub objectives that can be used to monitor national oral health (OH) status.2
Nebraska Healthy People 2020: Oral Health
Based off the national HP2020 goals and objective, Nebraska created it's own statewide Healthy People 2020. Nebraska Healthy People 2020 selected 9 of the 17 national oral health objectives to be monitored within the state. The oral health objectives and NE HP 2020 support the goals of the Nebraska State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP). The nine oral health objectives generally call for an overall increase access to oral health care, a reduction in untreated and treated dental decay among young children, an increase in number of dental sealants for young children, an increase in preventive care for low income children, a reduction tooth extraction among adults, and an increase in community water fluoridation. Nebraska HP202 target goals are set at 5-10% above the baseline figure.
Sources:
1. Department of Health and Human Service. Healthy People 2020; November 2010. Available at: http://dhhs.ne.gov/publichealth/Documents/HP2020_b...
2. Healthy People. Oral Health Objectives; 04/08/2015. Available at: https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/oral-health.
Measures
Period
Trend
% Change
This scorecard is created to track performance, therefore the demonstration of data within color markers identifies the boundaries of what we define as success. In some instances, a trend may be moving in the wrong direction, but still may be within our 'Target for Success' area. The use of Color Bands and Color Arrows help to define the Target for Success and Current Progress.
Green, Black and Red arrows are used to reflect our 'Current Progress' status.
- GREEN Arrow = We're getting better!
- BLACK Arrow = We're maintaining our position.
- RED Arrow = We're going in the wrong direction.
Green, Yellow or Red color bands are used to reflect our 'Target for Success' zones.
- GREEN Color Band = We've reached our Target for Success!
- YELLOW Color Band = We're making progress, but not quite there yet.
- RED Color Band = We're below our Target for Success.
Data is described with the Time Period, Actual Value, Target Value, Current Trend and Baseline Change %. These mean:
- Time Period - The most current time period for which the data were available.
- Actual Value - The actual level of achievement, the most current data point for the indicator, also shown in a Color Band to reflect if that value is or is not within our Target for Success zone.
- Target Value - The desired level of achievement for the data indicator.
- Current Trend - The direction of progress is shown by a Color Arrow to reflect our Current Progress status, and also noting for how many data points the direction been occurring.
- Baseline Change % - The percentage of change between the baseline data point and the current data point (actual value); also shown with a Color Arrow to describe Current Progress status.
Clear Impact Suite is an easy-to-use, web-based software platform that helps your staff collaborate with external stakeholders and community partners by utilizing the combination of data collection, performance reporting, and program planning.