Transcript Working Paper No.12 21 November 2005 STATISTICAL COMMISSION and UN ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE STATISTICAL OFFICE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (EUROSTAT) CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN STATISTICIANS WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) Joint UNECE/WHO/Eurostat Meeting on.

Working Paper No.12
21 November 2005
STATISTICAL COMMISSION and
UN ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR
EUROPE
STATISTICAL OFFICE OF THE
EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
(EUROSTAT)
CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN
STATISTICIANS
WORLD HEALTH
ORGANIZATION (WHO)
Joint UNECE/WHO/Eurostat Meeting
on the Measurement of Health Status
(Budapest, Hungary, 14-16 November 2005)
Session 1
Background, Terminology
and Scope
(Comment from Discussant)
Arpo Aromaa, KTL
Measurement of health
• Do we need a broader framework and
analysis of definitions and purposes of
health measurement?
– scientific; health policy and planning; both
– measurements are poor or unavailable in many
of the areas needed for policy and practice
• Is the distinction and role of health status
vs. health states clear?
Information for policy and
practice
• Health status and health states
– including major diseases and functioning
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•
Modifiable determinants
Need for promotion and prevention
Need for care and rehabilitation
Need for care and aids
Expected future developments (based on
determinants, trends and current health)
HIS, why not HES
• Is it wise to concentrate solely on
interview methods?
• Measurements of functioning, functional
limitations and activity limitations add to
dimensions, validity and comparability
(between populations and time), and a
number of them could be incorporated in
home health interviews.
Health states
• Usefulness of separating health states
from many other measures of health?
• Which health state dimensions?
• Is the distinction between capacity and
performance useful in survey work?
• Can useful scales be constructed for each
of the health state dimensions? And can
(or should) different dimensions be ’added
up’ for combined measures?
Current health alone?
• Are the arguments for concentrating on
current health states convincing?
• For health policy and health care planning
important issues take into account
determinants of health, promotion and
prevention, and current and future (care)
needs and their determinants.
• Should recommendations on health states
clearly mention and define other important
areas?
Next steps
• Need for a precise road map for future
work?
• How to ensure that key developments are
coherent with those of various actors?
• Is this effort only one of the many leading
to recommendations but little practical
use?
Washington Group
• Is it likely that disability measurement by
censuses will become a preferred
solution?
• What is the intended relationship of
census questions to national health
survey questions?
• How useful has ICF been in the
development of the questions?
• Some draft questions combine two
different functions - do they work?