scholarly journals Skills building seminar: Population health monitoring goes upstream to improve the uptake of the wider health determinants

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Health Monitoring ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Health Determinants ◽  
Health In All Policies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health Promoting ◽  
Population Health Monitoring

Abstract Population health monitoring and reporting provides regular and up to date information on health outcomes, health behaviour, and parameters related to health care. If relevant and possible, information is stratified by sex, age and socio-economic indicators. Finally, the outputs of routine population health monitoring and reporting aim to inform policy makers and other stakeholders to develop healthy public policies and implement health promoting actions. However, does the processed data and information really help us to develop a strong and effective narrative on how to improve population health? Alternatively, this information might perpetuate a focus on health care and individualistic solutions for health and inhibits us to frame a narrative focussed on the social, political, and commercial determinants of health. If we (1) aim to follow a Health in All Policies approach, (2) agree that changes in population health can best be reached if health determinants are tackled upstream, and (3) acknowledge that health is mainly determined outside the health sector, we probably miss parts of the picture with our current routine population health monitoring and reporting activities. In this workshop, we aim to explore data and information sources that have the potential to expand our general monitoring and reporting focus. The first presentation will focus on the living environment and provides an overview on geospatial information like land use, road and rail networks, amenities, and air pollution, available online at EU level. The second presentation puts the focus on health promoting processes within Finnish municipalities. The tool, that follows a Health in All Policies approach, has emerged to a resource that collects and presents this information routinely. The third presentation will discuss methods for involving the community in making decisions about measuring what is important for their own health and wellbeing. It will also discuss taking their ideas forward and identifying validated tools that can be used to measure what the community want. The last presentation highlights the relevance of policy analysis, for example in the area of food and nutrition, and underlines how this analytical approach can be used to communicate actions needed upstream. Experts from public health authorities and universities are invited to discuss during this skills building seminar how the focus on the wider health determinants and upstream prevention can be strengthened in routine population health monitoring and reporting. The presentations are followed by an interactive part of 30 minutes to discuss the applicability of the presented approaches and further possibilities to broaden the scope of population health monitoring and reporting. Key messages The data and information usually used for population health monitoring and reporting lacks information necessary to promote a Health in All Policies perspective and to push upstream prevention. To frame narratives that underline the importance of the social, political and commercial determinants of health, we need to expand our data and information sources and include policy analysis.

21.K. Workshop: Closing the data gap on child health – approaches, characteristics and methodological challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Child Health ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Chronic Diseases ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Health Monitoring ◽  
Health Examination ◽  
Data Gap ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Population Health Monitoring

Abstract As stated in the 2010 and 2020 Marmot review, inequalities, especially during childhood, have lifelong impacts. Social hardships during childhood reduce the chances for children to develop and flourish and show to have a negative impact on livelong health outcomes. To monitor progress in reducing inequalities in child health and to inform policy makers and other stakeholders to develop healthy public policies, data on social determinants, health outcomes, health behaviour, the conditions in which children grow up, and the utilisation of health care are needed. But these data have been scarce for routine population health monitoring. Routine data sources like mortality statistics or hospital discharge data have shown to be not very well suited to monitor child health since they are only outcome focussed and cover only extreme events. In this workshop we aim to showcase different national approaches that aim to overcome this data gap. We want to discuss their set-up including the strength and weaknesses in terms of organisation, management, data quality, information richness, and dissemination and we want to learn about the experiences workshop participants made in their countries. First, we will learn about two approaches that combine questionnaire and examination elements. England has long-standing experiences in monitoring child health and includes children in their general population-based health examination survey, so that children's health can be seen in the context of other household members, in particular parent's socio-economic status, health status, and health-related behaviours. The German approach focusses specifically on child health and includes a module for longitudinal monitoring. Second, we will learn about experiences from Finland who make use of routinely collected data from health check-ups performed at child health clinics and school health care. While the first two approaches use representative population samples, the Finish approach make use of a whole population sample including those who utilise public health services. The third part of this workshop will focus on a specific methodological discussion regarding the identification of children with chronic diseases and the comparison of several measurement approaches. We will devote twenty minutes for the presentation of the three different data collection approaches in order to gain a good overview on their set-up and their characteristics and 15 minutes for the methodological presentation regarding the measurement of chronic diseases in children. 15 minutes are reserved for further discussion with the workshop participants and the exchange of experiences in child health monitoring worldwide. Key messages Register- and survey-based approaches for child health monitoring exist that provide data for routine population health monitoring and inform policy-making. Methodological issues, e.g. in terms of standards or measurement approaches exist and need further research and discussion.

scholarly journals The Social Determinants of Health in Disaster Risk Reduction

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (s1) ◽  
pp. s95-s95
Author(s):  
Joseph Cuthbertson ◽  
Frank Archer ◽  
Jose Rodriguez-llanes ◽  
Andrew Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Social Determinants Of Health ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Determinants Of Health ◽  
Health Determinants ◽  
Community Perception ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
The Social ◽  
Socially Isolated

Introduction:The rationale for undertaking this study was to investigate how characteristics of population health relate to and impact disaster risk, resilience, vulnerability, impact, and recovery. The multi-disciplinary environment that contextualizes disaster practice can influence determinants of health. Robust health determinants, or lack thereof, may influence the outcomes of disaster events affecting an individual or a community.Aim:To investigate how the social determinants of health inform community perceptions of disaster risk.Methods:Community perception of disaster risk in reference to the social determinants of health was assessed in this study. Individual interviews with participants from a community were conducted, all of whom were permanent community residents. Thematic analysis was conducted using narrative inquiry to gather firsthand insights on their perceptions of how characteristics of population health relate to and impact an individual’s disaster risk.Results:Analysis demonstrated commonality between interviewees in perceptions of the influence of the social determinants of health on individual disaster risk by determinant type. Interviewees sensed a strong correlation between low community connection and disaster risk vulnerability. Specific populations thought to have low community connection were perceived to be socially isolated, resulting in low knowledge or awareness of the surrounding disaster risks, or how to prepare and respond to disasters. In addition, they had reduced access to communication and support in time of need.Discussion:The importance of a strong social community connection was a feature of this research. Further research on how health determinants can enable disaster risk awareness and disaster risk communication is warranted.

The 1972 Cuban national child growth study as an example of population health monitoring: design and methods

1975 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Jordan ◽  
M. Ruben ◽  
J. Hernandez ◽  
A. Bebelagua ◽  
J.M. Tanner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Health ◽  
Health Monitoring ◽  
Child Growth ◽  
Growth Study ◽  
Monitoring Design ◽  
Design And Methods ◽  
Population Health Monitoring

scholarly journals Round table: Health in Environmental Impact Assessment: getting serious about primary prevention

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Health Determinants ◽  
Health In All Policies

Abstract There is an increasing awareness in Europe that health is determined largely by factors outside the health sector. Thus, as public policies in all sectors and at different levels of governance may have a significant impact on population health, a new approach for tackling health is needed. Health in All Policies is an approach to public policies across sectors that systematically considers the health implications of decisions, seeks synergies, and optimises them to improve population health and health equity. Therefore, engagement of the health sector in other policies should be a priority within public health. However, it is bound to meet some resistances as it entails new roles in public health practice, bringing some practitioners out of their comfort zone. Implementing the health in all policies agenda on the ground is challenging, and tools such as Health Impact Assessment (HIA) are needed to enable policy-makers to predict and govern the consequences of their proposals on the well-being of the affected population, and to optimise them. Advocacy and support from the public health sector are imperative to achieve these goals. This also means placing public health professionals outside their usual area of expertise, confronted with alien sectors such as urban planning or infrastructure development. HIA expertise and capacity are still scarce and unevenly distributed in Europe. Indeed, lack of awareness, capacities and resistance from public health officials are usually cited as some of the barriers preventing its establishment as a field of work in many countries. To deal with this problem, many countries and subnational entities have been developing resources such as databases and websites, while others have embarked on capacity building. As a result, there has been a widespread use of HIA in Europe in recent years and sharing some successful case studies is important. The WHO Europe Regions for Health Network (RHN) aims at documenting and disseminating best practices to improve populations’ health across Europe. Andalusia (Spain), through its Regional Ministry of Health, has been implementing HIA over the last five years, focusing on the development of tools and procedures, identifying elements of success, conflicts and reluctances, and windows of opportunity. This workshop is intended to share the existing experiences on HIA and to launch a new RHN case-study publication collecting best practices on HIA across Europe. After an introduction by the chairperson, a presentation by WHO will provide an overview of HIA in Europe, followed by a representative from Andalusia who will focus on the challenges and opportunities found in implementing HIA as a stand-alone document partially integrated with Environmental Impact Assessment procedures. The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion with panelists representing the subnational level of governance, from 5 different countries in Europe: Belgium, Germany, Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland. Key messages HIA is a tool for implementation of the health in all policy agenda; a resource for addressing complex environmental health determinants and a way of being faithful to WHO’s definition of health. HIA can be simple, if needed. In HIA, too, the best is the enemy of the good. It “operates deliberately in imperfection” as in many cases where stakes are high, decisions urgent and evidence uncertain.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document