With more than 35,000 Hawaiʻi residents living with Alzheimer’s, and the state’s aging population expected to grow, early detection and brain-healthy habits are crucial. To address this urgent public health issue, a new Healthy Brain Tracker tool has been developed and launched as part of a statewide collaboration with the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Center on Aging (COA) and the Department of Public Health Sciences’ (DPHS)’ Hawaiʻi Health Data Warehouse (HHDW) team in the Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health.
This new interactive online tool, supports the Hawaiʻi 2025 State Plan on Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, provides real-time, localized data on brain health, cognitive decline, dementia prevalence, risk factors and caregiving across the state.
Real-time data tracks trends, issues
The Healthy Brain Tracker features interactive charts and dashboards by county and demographic group, offering data on cognitive disabilities, dementia rates, risk factors, caregiver roles and more. These tools help users visualize the scope of the issue, identify service gaps, and track trends over time.
“Public health surveillance data, like the kind available in the tracker, is essential for identifying important issues,” said Julia Chosy, an epidemiologist with HHDW. “It helps measure the impact of programs and policy changes, ultimately improving the health of all our local residents.”
Research shows that changes in the brain can begin 20 years or more before symptoms appear, making timely access to information crucial for prevention and intervention.
“Data is very powerful, and we need this kind of data in the public health realm,” said Christy Nishita, a gerontologist at the Center on Aging. “There’s a lot of concern and impact on families, and the numbers are only going to grow because of our population aging.”
The tracker was developed over the past year through COA and DPHS HHDW, the Hawaiʻi Dementia Initiative Data Action Team, and the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health Executive Office on Aging, with funding from the Centers for Disease Control’s Building Our Largest Dementia Infrastructure grant.
