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Minimum health indicator set for South Eastern Europe
1Bielefeld University School of Public Health, Institute of Public Health North Rhine-Westphalia, Bielefeld, Germany. Doris.Bardehle@loegd.nrw.de
Aim:
The Stability Pact includes a program for the development and reconstruction of training and research in public health for the countries of South Eastern Europe (PH-SEE). One of the identified priorities of national public health development is the definition of a Minimum Indicator Set for all countries of SEE.
Methods:
A Task Force of the PH-SEE Network (www.snz.hr/ph-see) has proposed a Minimum Indicator Set on the basis of the list of the 224 indicators of the World Health Organization (WHO) Health for All (HFA) 21 strategy. The indicators selected follow the selection criteria as defined by expert groups of WHO and the European Commission. A meta-database describing the indicators should be established soon.
Results:
A list of 32 indicators was agreed at a workshop in Ohrid, Macedonia, in September 2001. All indicators are included in the WHO HFA 21 indicator set. Some indicators are related specifically to the SEE post-war situation, such as indicators on suicide and homicide, literacy rate, average number of calories per person a day, and average number of persons per room.
Conclusion:
After principal agreement of the expert group on the list of indicators, further practical steps are necessary, especially testing the indicators and building a logistic network for realizing the Minimum Indicator Set. This includes a pilot phase, a revision of the Minimum Indicator Set after testing, responsibilities and timelines for data collection and data analysis, and transfer of the project into a continuous surveillance and monitoring system.