Children's environmental health indicators in Australia: are we collecting the right information?

Rev Environ Health. 2016 Mar;31(1):163-7. doi: 10.1515/reveh-2015-0064.

Abstract

In order to assess progress in improving children's health objectively standardized measurements are required. The World Health Organization (WHO) undertook a pilot project to develop and implement a series of children's environmental health indicators (CEHI) to facilitate this process. No countries in Oceania were included in this pilot. This project was undertaken to determine whether data collected and publicly available in Australia were sufficient to address the CEHI. Government documents and websites were searched to obtain publicly available data. These data adequately reflected outcome indicators but data addressing many exposure indicators were either missing or not available in a child-specific format. Australia does collect data on child health and well-being but not in a form compatible with the WHO CEHI.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Australia
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Environmental Health / statistics & numerical data*
  • Epidemiological Monitoring*
  • Female
  • Health Status Indicators
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Male
  • Pilot Projects
  • Population Surveillance*