The project will assess the applicability of the ENHIS indicators for environmental health policies and produce Europe’s first set of regional indicators which will be the basis of a harmonised system for the collation of environmental health information at a sub-national level and will complement the core set of 26 indicators. To ensure European added value for public health improvement, activities of this project will focus on: developing a harmonised system of environmental health indicators; collation of data; development of a method to compare regions; and collation of policies which deliver positive outcomes to ensure transferability within Europe.

Objectives

Within the framework of Work Plan 2008 for the implementation of the programme for community action in the field of public health (2008-2013), this project aims to develop a sustainable environmental health monitoring system consisting of a set of subnational/ regional indicators to improve public health across Europe. It will build on and compliment the work of ENHIS which developed a core set of 26 indicators to monitor and assess the environmental health of a population at a national level. Hence this project will assess the applicability of ENHIS indicators (ECHI and others) at a subnational level. The creation of a consistent and common framework within Europe will facilitate the comparability of health status data and help to identify those policies and interventions that deliver positive health outcomes such a reduction in mortality and morbidity from road traffic and non-road traffic accidents.

Expected Outcomes

The European Commission has identified as a priority the need to establish a group of experts to develop a sustainable health information system to monitor and review the quality and consistency of health information across Europe thereby generating and disseminating health information and knowledge. The primary outcome of this project will be a standardised system for the collation and reporting of environment and health information at a regional level across Europe. Through the use of the system it will be possible to identify health inequalities among regions within European countries. Further more the project will contribute to another one of the Commission’s priority regarding health promotion through a possible reduction in health inequalities between regions as supporting capability building in the development of policies for public health and health promotion. The creation of a consistent and common framework within Europe will facilitate the comparability of health status data and help to identify those policies and interventions that deliver positive health outcomes and facilitate their transfer to other appropriate European regions.

This three year project is co-funded by the European Commission within the framework of Work Plan 2008 for the implementation of the Second Program for Community Action in the field of Public Health (2008-2013). 

Partners

• Health Protection Agency, United Kingdom (project lead)
• Institute of Health, Carlos III, Spain
• National Institute of Public Health, Romania
• Centre for Health Education and Disease Prevention, Lithuania
• The NRW Institute of Health and Work, Germany
• National Institute of Environmental Health, Hungary
• National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia

Leaflets

UNIPHE leaflet (English version) (PDF, 324 KB)

Contact details

UNIPHE@hpa.org.uk

Upcoming Events

UNIPHE Environmental and Health Information System demonstration worshop - February 2011