Health Indicators - Conceptual and operational considerations

The purpose of this publication is to assist Member States in the Region of the Americas to select, manage, interpret and use health indicators. Its overall aim is to facilitate progress towards the monitoring and analysis of health situations and trends.

Measuring and monitoring health indicators are important to provide a foundation for measuring inequalities and guide evidence-based decision making in public health. This document examines conceptual and practical considerations for selecting and calculating health indicators.

It is intended for two main audiences: a) national level persons with responsibility for generating, analyzing, and validating timely and reliable data on health systems and services and this includes persons in vital statistics agencies and public health professionals; and b) users of health information for decision-making to strengthen health service delivery. However, the authors recognize that the Member Countries in the Region are at varying levels of progress with regard to human resources and institutional capacities to produce reliable, comparable, and consistent health information.