EU Community Health Indicators

ECHI

International public health comparisons require good and comparable data

International public health comparisons can only be made in a meaningful manner if data are not only actually available, but also comparable and of sufficient quality. In practice, the data situation is often not ideal. For example, quite often data are not available for all EU-27 countries, or available data are derived from different types of sources. Knowledge of the ‘metadata’ is essential for the proper interpretation of the data, including the meaning of differences between countries or of observed trends

Several data sources are used for international comparisons

Data for international public health comparisons may be retrieved from several data sources

•  Eurostat.
•  WHO Health for All database (WHO-HFA database).
•  WHO European mortality database (WHO-MDB database).
• OECD Health database.
•  EUCAN/GLOBOCAN (for cancer).
• European indicator projects:
  • MINDFUL mental health indicator database.
  • EUROTHINE – Tackling Health Inequalities in Europe; providing data on health inequalities.
  • EUDIP/EUCID – European Diabetes Indicators Project and European Core Indicators in Diabetes project.

ECHI makes use of international databases. In cases where no regular/adequate data are available in these databases ECHI uses either project results as interim solution and/or national level data…more