Using Driver's license data for population-based BMI assessment

Oregon Environmental Public Health Tracking (Oregon Tracking) is a nationwide initiative that involves the ongoing integration, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of data on environmental hazards, human exposures and health effects. Oregon is one of twenty-four grantees funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help develop the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network supporting the continued efforts to examine how environmental exposures and health outcomes are connected.

Oregon Tracking made new indicator-based data (including Body Mass Index or BMI) available on their recently enhanced online data portal, providing an interactive search of environmental and public health information through maps, tables, and graphs. Oregon is the first state to incorporate DMV data into the public health tracking system and has put forth the largest validation study conducted on DMV records to date.

Public health agencies need reliable local data to guide prevention efforts. State-issued driver licenses and ID cards (DMV data) records can be used to track the population’s weight status at a sub-county level, providing great detail on patterns and disparities. This presentation will cover the Oregon Tracking Program’s work to validate data from DMV records, and will demonstrate several applications to inform research, describe disparities and trends in obesity, and guide public health interventions. DMV data is also useful for evaluating interventions, because we can look at records issued in different years and compare the change over time in the population’s weight status between different areas of the state. Other states should explore using DMV data for obesity surveillance.