Developing recommendations for good practice in national health reporting

Abstract

Background Health reporting should deliver up-to-date data and information on the population's health status, its determinants and on national (or regional) healthcare services. Establishing an information or discussion base for health policy is an important objective ('data for action'), but health reporting also addresses other target groups like scientists, the media or the general public. Depending on the needs and competencies of the respective target groups, requirements for health reporting formats will differ. At the same time, heterogeneity of health reporting practices in Member States causes, next to occasional language barriers, difficulties in facilitating access to EU-comparable information. To allow for alignment and identification of good practices, our study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the health reporting formats in the EU. Methods A web-based desk research of health reporting formats and their target groups was conducted among EU Member States and associated InfAct partner countries. Good practice examples were identified on the basis of quality criteria derived from 'Good Practice in Health Reporting' for Germany and the Eva PHR (Evaluation of National and Regional Public Health Reports) project. Based on the findings of the desk research, a guidance document for health reports will be drafted in close cooperation with InfAct partner countries. Results The guidance should accommodate the heterogeneity of reporting practices at EU level while defining desirable and feasible good practice standards. Although the focus is on public health reports, recommendations for other formats of health reporting will also be included. It will facilitate the preparation, dissemination and access to EU-comparable and high-quality health information. Conclusions The guidance is expected to be a useful tool for making health information adequately available to the targeted groups while reducing inequalities in health reporting across the EU.

Overview of national health reporting in the EU and quality criteria for public health reports – results of the Joint Action InfAct

“…A web-based desk research was conducted among EU MS and associated countries on national health reporting formats and their respective target groups. A detailed description of the methodology has been published on the InfAct website [ 1 ]. In this article, we will therefore limit ourselves to a brief summary of the most relevant aspects.…”

“…The findings of the web-based desk research were analysed according to a qualitative content analysis, described by Mayring [ 14 ], to assign the results to the formats and target groups. In a further step, the univariate analysis of the research results followed, before cross-comparisons between the categories were carried out to identify which target groups are addressed by the different health reporting formats [ 1 ].…”

“…Health reporting shall provide up-to-date data and descriptions of the population‘s health status and its determinants, and identify areas where action is needed in health care, health protection, health promotion and disease prevention. Establishing an information or discussion base for health policy is a key objective of health reporting (‘data for action’) [ 1 ]. Therefore, policy-makers are an important target group of health reporting, next to scientists and researchers, health care providers, the media as well as the general public [ 2 ].…”

“…In general, health reports can be divided into two main types (considered here as two different formats): public health reports and health system performance assessment (HSPA) reports. Subcategories are among others ‘topical‘comprehensive reports on, for instance, infectious diseases, chronic diseases or lifestyle factors, and on the other hand ‘thematic‘reports focusing on specific subjects or population groups, for example, about health prevention in children or health care of older persons [ 1 ].…”

“…Heterogeneity of health reporting practices across EU MS as well as occasional language barriers cause difficulties in facilitating access to EU-comparable health information [ 1 ]. To tackle inequalities in health reporting across the EU and to facilitate making health information adequately accessible and available is the aim of the InfAct project, that builds towards a sustainable infrastructure on EU health information [ 8 ].…”