About the Utah Healthy Places Index
Using data to support decision-making and improve the health of Utah communities through evidence-based policies is an integral part of the Utah Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) vision. In recent years, DHHS has increasingly focused on social determinants of health and the role they play in health outcomes. In 2018, the Utah Health Improvement Index (HII) was developed as a tool to link health outcomes to health disparities. The HII is a composite measure of social determinants of health by geographic area. The Office of Health Promotion and Prevention (OHPP) has expanded this work into the development of the Utah Healthy Places Index (HPI).
The California Healthy Places Index™ was originally launched in 2018 by the Public Health Alliance of Southern California (Alliance) as a powerful and easy-to-use data and policy platform created to advance health equity through open and accessible data. Where we live is strongly tied to measures of well-being and life expectancy — even more so than genetics. Decades of research have demonstrated how health outcomes are strongly tied to neighborhood environments and community conditions. However, conditions that support health — access to education, good job opportunities, and healthy food and water — vary drastically by neighborhood.
Responding to this need, the Alliance brought together experts from a wide variety of fields to develop an open health equity data platform. They achieved this by analyzing 23 social indicators of health — all positively associated with life expectancy at birth — from multiple peer-reviewed sources to create an index visualized through a mapping tool.
In 2021, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services began working with the Public Health Alliance of Southern California to create the Utah Healthy Places Index. For over a year, OHPP staff engaged more than 90 multi-sector community partners to identify Utah specific indicators and policies to include in the Utah HPI. This effort has ensured that the Utah HPI is a powerful tool Utah communities can use to explore local factors that predict life expectancy, prioritize and allocate resources, and identify policies that would improve health in their communities. The policy opportunities are supported by research; they do not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Health and Human Services.
There’s a lot you can do with the Utah HPI on the website, but if you want to go more in-depth, or just want to learn more about how to use the Utah HPI in your work, we’re here to help! The Office of Promotion and Prevention is happy to share our expertise through customized trainings, tailored reports, capacity building, and other types of assistance you might need. Email our team at ohpp@utah.gov with your request or fill out this Google form.
This index was made possible through the Overdose Data to Action Cooperative Agreement number NU17CE925013, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the creators and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.
Our partners
The Utah Healthy Places Index is a project of the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Health Promotion and Prevention in partnership with multi-sector stakeholders from across the state.
- Association for Utah Community Health (AUCH)
- Community Development Corporation of Utah
- Davis4Health
- Get Healthy Utah
- Huntsman Cancer Institute
- Intermountain Healthcare
- Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute
- Local Health Districts
- Salt Lake City Government
- Trauma Informed Utah
- United Way of Salt Lake
- University of Utah
- Utah Association of Local Health Departments
- Utah Data Research Center
- Utah Department of Cultural and Community Engagement
- Utah Department of Environmental Quality
- Utah Department of Transportation
- Utah Department of Workforce Services
- Utah Geospatial Resource Center
- Utah Governor's Office of Planning and Budget
- Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity
- Utah Health Policy Project
- Utah League of Cities and Towns
- Utah State Board of Education
- Utah Transit Authority
- Utahns Against Hunger
- Voices for Utah Children
- Wasatch Front Regional Council