Interactive visualization of public health indicators to support policymaking: An exploratory study

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Informatics
• Data Visualization

Background:

• Communicating complex health data to policymakers presents challenges.
• Traditional data representation methods lack interactivity, potentially leading to misinterpretation.
• Social determinants of health (SDOH) and public health indicators require effective visualization for policy impact.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the utility of interactive visualizations for SDOH and public health indicators.
• To investigate the benefits of these visualizations for health policymaking.
• To assess the advantages of interactive over traditional data representation.

Main Methods:

• Development of a prototype online interactive visualization tool for SDOH.
• Exploration and use of the tool by study participants.
• Informal user experience evaluation through interviews to gather feedback.

Main Results:

• Interactive visualizations offer advantages over static methods for health indicators.
• Complexity of health indicators and diverse audience needs complicate communication with policymakers.
• Risk of data misinterpretation is high when context of data production and use is unclear.

Conclusions:

• Interactive visualizations can aid public health policymaking but require strategic evaluation.
• Usability, cost, ease of use, learnability, and efficiency are key factors for tool assessment.
• Data is one component in the complex public health policymaking process.