U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Reduce the proportion of children and adolescents with active and untreated tooth decay — OH‑02 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History  |  References

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), CDC/NCHS

Baseline: 13.4 percent of children and adolescents aged 3 to 19 years had active and currently untreated tooth decay in their primary or permanent teeth in 2013-16

Target: 10.2 percent

Numerator
Number of children and adolescents aged 3 to 19 years with untreated tooth decay (not filled or extracted) in at least 1 primary tooth or permanent tooth, or evidence of a missing tooth due to caries.
Denominator
Number of children and adolescents aged 3 to 19 years.
Target-setting method
Percentage point improvement
Target-setting method details
Percentage point improvement from the baseline using Cohen's h effect size of 0.10.
1
Target-setting method justification
Trend data were not available for this objective. A percentage point improvement was calculated using Cohen's h effect size of 0.1. This method was used because it was a statistically significant improvement from the baseline.

Methodology

Methodology notes

Untreated tooth decay is defined as the presence of untreated caries. Caries is the disease that causes tooth decay and can lead to cavities in teeth. Data on missing primary teeth are not captured by NHANES. Indicators of caries in primary teeth omit missing teeth to avoid potential misclassification of teeth lost to natural exfoliation as missing due to caries. The measurement protocol described for Healthy People 2000 is still in use.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Modified, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 but underwent a change in measurement.
Changes between HP2020 and HP2030
This objective differs from the related Healthy People 2020 objectives in that objectives OH-2.1, OH-2.2, and OH-2.3 tracked children and adolescents aged 3 to 5 years, 6 to 9 years, and 13 to 15 years, respectively, with untreated dental decay in their primary or permanent teeth, while this objective tracks children and adolescents aged 3 to 19 years with active and currently untreated tooth decay in their primary or permanent teeth.

References

Additional resources about the objective

Vargas C, Schober S, Gift H. Operational Definitions for Year 2000 Objectives: Priority Area 13, Oral Health. Healthy People 2000 Stat Notes. 1997;(12):1-17.. (PHS) 97-1237
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/statnt/statnt12.pdf

1. Effect size h=0.1 was chosen to correspond with 10% improvement from a baseline of 50%.