ΕVALUATING POPULATION HEALTH: THE SELECTION OF MAIN DIMENSIONS AND INDICATORS THROUGH A PARTICIPATORY APPROACH
Published 2015-03-01
Keywords
- Health Determinants,
- Health Outcomes,
- Population Health Index,
- Participatory Approach,
- Portugal
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2023 Paula SANTANA, Angela FREITAS, Claudia COSTA, Artur VAZ
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Population health is influenced by complex interactions between multiple determinants, but
there are still large gaps in knowledge about how to comprehensively evaluate the impact of
these factors on health. This paper presents the participatory approach used to select a
comprehensive set of dimensions and indicators to integrate the Population Health Index; a
holistic measure aimed to evaluate the health of the Portuguese population over the past 20
years. It considers the multiple dimensions of population health and experts’ judgements
from different knowledge areas. Using a combination of Delphi method in two successive
processes of consultation and nominal group review, it was reached a consensus on 62
indicators considered relevant for evaluating population health. The main dimensions were
Economic and Social, Physical Environment, Healthcare Services, Lifestyles, Mortality and
Morbidity. The results of the participatory approach reflects the diversity of points of view
and emphasizes the holistic and multidimensional character of health.