Eurostat's public health data and indicators

Eurostat is the Statistical Office of the European Communities, with its mission to gather and analyse figures from the different European statistics offices in order to provide comparable and harmonised data to the European Institutions as a basis for evidence based Community policies.
Health is an important issue for the European citizen. However, the competence for the organisation and delivery of health services and health care is largely held by the Member States, while the European Union has the responsibility in areas where coordinated action of all Member States will lead to added value, e.g. in view of improving health information and knowledge for the development of public health, to enhance the capability of responding rapidly and in a coordinated way to health threats, and to promote health and prevent diseases through addressing health determinants across all policies and activities.
The new programme of Community action in the field of public health is building on those three main areas and puts in place an overarching, strategic framework for work on health at Community level in the coming years, and encompasses work not only in the health sector but across all policy areas.
The presentation will give an overview on the public health data collections and indicators on the Eurostat website, with emphasis on current status and future developments on the following functional domains:
·          Health status and health determinants,
·          Morbidity,
·          Disability,
·          Health care – expenditure and non-expenditure data,
·          Causes of death statistics.
European Community health indicators (ECHI) that emanate from those data collections, indicators derived from the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) and those agreed through the open method of coordination (OMC) between the Commission and Member States in the area of social inclusion and protection will be addressed.