Promoting health equity: WHO health inequality monitoring at global and national levels
Equity is a cross-cutting theme in the World Health Organization (WHO) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The WHO has a number of products designed to help monitor health inequalities (which are defined as observed differences in health between subgroups) as a metric through which the normative concept of health equity can be evaluated.
The paper provides a framework to classify resources related to health inequality monitoring according to the component of monitoring (collection, analysis, reporting) and whether the level of monitoring occurs on a global or national level. Six different WHO products are categorized according to the framework and described using information on scope, contents and intended uses. A URL is provided for each of the six products. The paper concludes with recommendations to strengthen equity-oriented health information systems with respect to collection, analysis and reporting. Highlights on upcoming work by the WHO concerning health inequity monitoring on a global level are also included.
Use this resource to:
- Find national data to support planning and decision making
- Access learning opportunities, including e-learning and workshops
- Follow best practices in the design and development of local equity monitoring systems
Reference:
Hosseinpoor, A.R., Bergen, N., & Schlotheuber, A. (2015). Promoting health equity: WHO health inequality monitoring at global and national levels. Global Health Action, 8: 29034. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4576419/pdf/GHA-8-29034.pdf
Related resources:
- Equity-integrated population health status reporting: Action framework
- The Public Health Observatory handbook of health inequalities measurement
- Reducing gaps: Using area-based socio-economic measures to explore population health—online course
- Population health status reporting: The learning together series