INDICATORS

The Health determinants section included indicators for which data can only be gathered
either by health interview or health examination surveys. The highest ranking indicators
were body mass index, physical activity and smoking, for which data were said to be
available in all countries. Almost total coverage was also seen for consumption of fruit/
vegetables and blood pressure. The only indicators with poor availability were those that
are based on blood samples. The obvious reason for this lies in the relative infrequency
of health examination surveys, while health interview surveys are conducted regularly
in most countries. This was tracked by asking the respondents to indicate whether time
trends are available for indicator data.
Figure 7. Data availability for Health determinants indicators in Europe
Physical activity
Smoking, regular
Body mass index
Consumption of vegetables
Consumption of fruit
Indicators in data availability order
Blood pressure
Education
Social support
Breastfeeding
Alcohol use, hazardous
PM10 exposure
Pregnant women smoking
Serum total cholesterol
Serum HDL-cholesterol
Serum glucose
Serum biomarkers
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Availability in %
The Health care section indicators were based mainly on hospital data. In addition to
overall availability, breakdowns by age, sex and socio-economic status were tracked for
these indicators. Basic hospital data, i.e. average length of stay and causes of admissions/
discharges were available in all countries. Day cases in hospitals, n and % of children
vaccinated and surgeries (PTCA, hip, cataract) were also generally very well available.
Availability was poorest for many control type indicators, such as screenings for PSA,
cancer treatment quality and diabetes control. However, in this section in particular, it
is noteworthy that insufficient indicator definitions in the ECHI shortlist of that time
60