Calculation and Validation of a New Synthetic and Autocorrelate Index to Measure the Health Status of a Population

Abstract

Background The status of health of an individual and - more broadly - of a community or population is defined by the status of their determinants of health. A “systemic” approach to define the health determinants is necessary in order to explore the complex relations existing among them. This study is aimed at identifying a ‘composite systemic’ index of health to measure the impact of socioeconomic factors on public health at local level and to analyze possible spatial autocorrelations between neighboring regions. Methods A Composite Index of Health (CIH) was constructed on the basis of known indicators of socio-economic well being by using the COMIC (COMposite Indices Creator) Software and was validated on the Italian population and a nationwide comparison has been performed. Results Analysis of the determinants showed a significant direct correlation between health, environment, work and wealth and inverse correlation between health and social distress. The analysis of data from Italian provinces confirmed the South-North gradient of well-being. Conclusions The CIH is a reliable and robust index to evaluate the health of a local population. Although it was validated on Italian data, the index can be easily adapted to any Country.

A composite tourism index for the competitiveness of marginal areas: a pilot application in a Southern Italy province

“…Compared to the previous studies (Gismondi and Russo, 2004; Baldazzi et al , 2015; Tebala and Marino, 2017; Tebala and Tebala, 2020), this paper offers the opportunity to experiment with multiple composite and synthetic indexes based on weighting and aggregation procedures, through which processing a very rich knowledge base that combines structured and unstructured data sets. The results obtained show that policymakers can adopt different perspectives to define and identify peripheral areas, with the final goal to elaborate a proper strategy for tourism development, which may contribute to enhance the resilience of the entire industry (Ivona et al , 2021).…”

“…Tebala and Marino (2017) and Tebala and Tebala (2020) identified a composite “systemic” index to measure the impact of tourist goods on the collective wellbeing at the provincial level, by analyzing also possible spatial autocorrelations existing between the Italian provinces.…”

“…With a specific reference to the case of marginal or fragile areas, Markovi c et al ( 2017) measured the rural tourism potential of territory by calculating the economic impact and socio-cultural effects of such typology of tourism within a destination. Tebala and Marino (2017) and Tebala and Tebala (2020) identified a composite "systemic" index to measure the impact of tourist goods on the collective wellbeing at the provincial level, by analyzing also possible spatial autocorrelations existing between the Italian provinces. Lopes et al (2018) measured the competitiveness of eight tourism destinations located in the northern region of Portugal to show the suitability of using multi-criteria techniques (i.e.…”