Overview of national health reporting in the EU and quality criteria for public health reports - results of the Joint Action InfAct

Martin Thissen; Stefanie Seeling; Peter Achterberg; Angela Fehr; Luigi Palmieri; Mariken J Tijhuis; Brigid Unim; Thomas Ziese

doi:10.1186/s13690-021-00753-7

Overview of national health reporting in the EU and quality criteria for public health reports - results of the Joint Action InfAct

Arch Public Health. 2021 Dec 22;79(1):229. doi: 10.1186/s13690-021-00753-7.

Authors

Martin Thissen¹, Stefanie Seeling², Peter Achterberg³, Angela Fehr^{2

4}, Luigi Palmieri⁵, Mariken J Tijhuis³, Brigid Unim⁵, Thomas Ziese²

Affiliations

¹ Unit 24 - Health Reporting, Department of Epidemiology and Health Monitoring, Robert Koch Institute, General-Pape-Str. 62-66, 12101, Berlin, Germany. thissenm@rki.de.
² Unit 24 - Health Reporting, Department of Epidemiology and Health Monitoring, Robert Koch Institute, General-Pape-Str. 62-66, 12101, Berlin, Germany.
³ Centre for Health Knowledge Integration, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
⁴ ZIG 1 - Information Centre for International Health Protection (INIG), Centre for International Health Protection (ZIG), Robert Koch Institute, Nordufer 20, 13353, Berlin, Germany.
⁵ Department of Cardiovascular, Endocrine-metabolic Diseases and Aging, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.

Abstract

Background: Health reporting shall provide up-to-date health-related data to inform policy-makers, researchers and the public. To this end, health reporting formats should be tailored to the needs and competencies of the target groups and provide comparable and high-quality information. Within the Joint Action on Health Information 'InfAct', we aimed at gaining an overview of health reporting practices in the EU Member States and associated countries, and developed quality criteria for the preparation of public health reports. The results are intended to facilitate making health information adequately available while reducing inequalities in health reporting across the EU.

Methods: A web-based desk research was conducted among EU Member States and associated countries to generate an overview of different formats of national health reporting and their respective target groups. To identify possible quality criteria for public health reports, an exploratory literature review was performed and earlier projects were analysed. The final set of criteria was developed in exchange with experts from the InfAct consortium.

Results: The web-based desk research showed that public health reports are the most frequently used format across countries (94%), most often addressed to scientists and researchers (51%), politicians and decision-makers (41%). However, across all reporting formats, the general public is the most frequently addressed target group. With regards to quality criteria for public health reports, the literature review has yielded few results. Therefore, two earlier projects served as main sources: the 'Evaluation of National and Regional Public Health Reports' and the guideline 'Good Practice in Health Reporting'from Germany. In collaboration with experts, quality criteria were identified and grouped into eight categories, ranging from topic selection to presentation of results, and compiled in a checklist for easy reference.

Conclusion: Health reporting practices in the EU are heterogeneous across Member States. The assembled quality criteria are intended to facilitate the preparation, dissemination and access to better comparable high-quality public health reports as a basis for evidence-based decision-making. A comprehensive conceptual and integrative approach that incorporates the policy perspective would be useful to investigate which dissemination strategies are the most suitable for specific requirements of the targeted groups.

Keywords: Dissemination; Health information; Health reporting; Inequalities; Public health report; Quality criteria; Recommendations; Reporting format; Target group.