NOHSS Adult Indicators: Oral Health Prevalence from BRFSS, 2012-2020

National estimates of adult oral health indicators for even years from 2012 through 2020, prepared from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) public use data sets. The data includes median prevalence estimates across U.S. states and the District of Columbia, provided by the CDC's Division of Oral Health via data.cdc.gov. Estimates are not age-adjusted and may differ from other sources due to definitional or rounding differences.

Use Cases

• Analyzing temporal trends in oral health indicators using Year, Indicator, and Data_Value columns.
• Comparing prevalence across geographic regions using LocationDesc, LocationAbbr, and Data_Value columns.
• Investigating disparities by demographic subgroups using Break_Out, Break_Out_Category, and Response columns.
• Assessing estimate reliability using SampleSize, High_Confidence_Interval, and Low_Confidence_Interval columns.

Strengths

• Data spans 5 survey years (2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020) providing a multi-year view.
• Includes confidence intervals (High_Confidence_Interval, Low_Confidence_Interval) and sample sizes (SampleSize) for assessing estimate reliability.
• Contains detailed metadata columns such as Data_Value_Footnote and Data_Value_Footnote_Symbol to explain data anomalies.
• Geographic granularity includes state-level data (LocationDesc) and geocoding columns (GeoLocation).

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Estimates are not age-adjusted, which may affect comparability with other sources.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Oral Health via data.cdc.gov.

Collection Method

Estimates prepared from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) public use data sets.

Time Range

2012-2020 (even years only).

Freshness

Last updated 2025-01-30 22:26:32; freshness should be verified.

Geography

United States, with state-level estimates for 50 states and the District of Columbia.