Background

The conditions in the neighborhoods where we live contribute to a wide range of health and economic outcomes. Individual measures of these neighborhood conditions, such as median income or air quality, are important indicators; however, they do not comprehensively capture the complex and interactive set of factors that define opportunities for growth and healthy living. To address this, researchers and policymakers have constructed composite indices that combine multiple factors affecting health and overall well-being across geographic areas (e.g., see national Opportunity Index and Child Opportunity Index). The most well-known such indices are intended for use across the nation.

These national indices include several common features: They represent opportunities within politically and socially meaningful boundaries of geography like counties, zip code tabulation areas, or census tracts; they organize multiple measures into domains that reflect influences on health, growth, and well-being; they are updated regularly; and they are designed to facilitate comparisons across the entire country.

A limitation of national indices is they are restricted to using data sources that are universally available for every area across the country for consistency and comparability. State-specific or sensitive data components cannot easily be obtained, standardized, and included (e.g., measures derived from vital statistics or health care claims data) in such indices. However, if the focus is on the production of a state-specific index, inclusion of a more comprehensive set of factors becomes more feasible. Prior to the formation of the Ohio Opportunity Index Project and its products, we were not aware of such a tool for Ohio. The Ohio Opportunity Index (OOI) and the Ohio Children’s Opportunity Index (OCOI) were developed to fill this gap.