Paula Margozzini, Hanna Tolonen, Antonio Bernabe-Ortiz, Sarah Cuschieri, Chiara Donfrancesco, Luigi Palmieri, Luz Maria Sanchez-Romero, Jennifer S Mindell, Oyinlola Oyebode
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to contribute technical arguments to the debate about the importance of health examination surveys and their continued use during the post-pandemic health financing crisis, and in the context of a technological innovation boom that offers new ways of collecting and analysing individual health data (e.g. artificial intelligence). Technical considerations demonstrate that health examination surveys make an irreplaceable contribution to the local availability of primary health data that can be used in a range of further studies (e.g. normative, burden-of-disease, care cascade, cost and policy impact studies) essential for informing several phases of the health planning cycle (e.g. surveillance, prioritization, resource mobilization and policy development). Examples of the use of health examination survey data in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region (i.e. Finland, Italy, Malta and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) and the WHO Region of the Americas (i.e. Chile, Mexico, Peru and the United States of America) are presented, and reasons why health provider-led data cannot replace health examination survey data are discussed (e.g. underestimation of morbidity and susceptibility to bias). In addition, the importance of having nationally representative random samples of the general population is highlighted and we argue that health examination surveys make a critical contribution to external quality control for a country's health system by increasing the transparency and accountability of health spending. Finally, we consider future technological advances that can improve survey fieldwork and suggest ways of ensuring health examination surveys are sustainable in low-resource settings.
期刊介绍:
The Bulletin of the World Health Organization
Journal Overview:
Leading public health journal
Peer-reviewed monthly journal
Special focus on developing countries
Global scope and authority
Top public and environmental health journal
Impact factor of 6.818 (2018), according to Web of Science ranking
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Essential reading for public health decision-makers and researchers
Provides blend of research, well-informed opinion, and news