What are the building blocks of the National Health Index?
Data from a variety of sources will be used in the calculation of the National Health Index:
- THL, the National Institute for Health and Welfare (Care Register for Health Care, outpatient visits to specialised and primary care and hospitalisation periods)
- The Finnish Cancer Registry (diagnosed cancers)
- Statistics Finland (causes of death and demographic data)
- Finnish Centre for Pensions (disability pensions)
- Kela (reimbursements for medicine expenses, and other health-based benefits)
The National Health Index consists of sub-indexes that cover the disease groups and health problems that are the most common and generate the greatest disease burden. The project will strive to identify the most reliable ways of describing regional differences in the prevalence of diseases and health problems at population level using data from different registers. The goal is to ensure that the index is not limited to describing potential differences in diagnostic and treatment practices or in the way entries are made in the patient information systems.
The project will look at the following disease groups:
- cancers
- cardiovascular diseases
- diabetes
- dementia
- musculoskeletal diseases
- severe mental health problems
- accidents
- chronic respiratory diseases
- alcohol disorders
Additionally, a new sub-index that more comprehensively covers incapacity for work will be developed and evaluated during the project.
In determining the burden caused by the different health problems, the prevalence of each health problem is weighted based on the associated
- costs
- effects on quality of life
- mortality
- incapacity for work.
