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Public Health Information
Current Project:
Public Health Classifications Project
Project Background
The Public Health Performance Project (2002)
recommended the development of a classification system for public health
that builds on the core functions for public health and can be used for
expenditure and performance monitoring. The Public Health Information
Development Unit (PHIDU) carried out preliminary work and prepared a project
proposal that was endorsed by the National Public Health Information Working
Group and has been funded by the National Public Health Partnership Group
(NPHPG) .
The Project objectives are to develop and endorse
a higher-level classification that captures the full scope and breadth
of public health activity in Australia (see Box 1), provides a unified
framework for further developing public health performance indicators
and categorising public health expenditure, and can be used to incorporate
public health-relevant categories in 'classification of expenditure use'
schemas.
Project Reference Group and Project Officer
Chaired by Louisa Jorm , NSW Dept of Health (and NPHPG representative
on the National Health Performance Committee ), the current Reference
Group members are: Michael Ackland (Dept of Human Services, Vic), Dean
Martin/Sally Goodspeed (ABS), Pam Gollow (Dept of Health and Community
Services, NT), Charles Guest (ACT Health), Paul Jelfs (SA Dept of Human
Services), Karen Roger (NPHP Secretariat), Colin Sindall (Population Health
Division, Australian Government Dept of Health and Ageing), Andrea Casasola/Jackie
Steele (Qld Health), Robert Van der Hoek (AIHW) and Tony Woollacott (Expenditure
Project representative, SA Dept of Human Services). Su Gruszin, Research
Fellow, PHIDU, is the Project Officer.
What the Project will do
The project will develop a unified public health classification that
encompasses public health core functions, expenditure classifications
and performance indicators. It will investigate useful descriptive axes,
focusing on a few selected axes while recognising the importance of the
multidimensionality of public health (see Box 2). The result will be
a high-level, generic public health classification framework that is useful
for a range of purposes (see below). Axes selected for detailed examination
are: Public health functions and activities
that funds buy (e.g. public health expenditure activities ),
determinants of health (e.g. health risk and promotive
factors) and disease/injury areas (e.g. vaccine preventable
diseases) that determine Intervention targets, and the public health toolkit
- bodies of knowledge, methods and tools, both specific (e.g.
surveillance, health promotion) and non-specific to public health .
Project outcome
The Project will produce a public health classification that can be used
to:
• answer key public health questions e.g. how much was spent
on prevention of obesity?
• reflect the full scope and breadth of public health activity,
in expenditure and performance indicator reporting
• articulate, describe and define public health, in different
classification systems
• structure and design information/communications e.g. in
websites or report chapters.
How to have input/become involved
• Provide input or comment on the Project
Background Paper (pdf, 177KB)
• Participate and become involved in the process of developing,
testing and refining the classification as a public health expert in
your particular domain.
• Contact the Project Officer
Su Gruszin (details below).
Contact
: Su Gruszin, Project Officer, Public Health Classsifications
Project, Telephone: 02 8920 8309 (Sydney), Email: su.gruszin@adelaide.edu.au
(Research Fellow, Public Health Information
Development Unit, The University of Adelaide, Web site: http://www.publichealth.gov.au)
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Box 1: The Purpose
of Public Health
“The art and science of public health practice in Australia
today seeks to improve health and wellbeing through approaches which
focus on whole populations. Priorities are to reduce disparities
in health status between social groups and to influence the underlying
social, economic, physical and biological determinants. Public health
practice informs and empowers individuals and communities, and creates
healthy environments through the use of evidence-based strategies,
best practice and quality improvement approaches, and effective
governance and accountability mechanisms.”
Core Functions*:
1. Assess, analyse & communicate population health needs &
community expectations
2. Prevent & control communicable & non-communicable diseases
& injuries through risk factor reduction, education, screening,
immunisation & other interventions
3. Promote & support healthy lifestyles & behaviours through
action with individuals, families, communities & wider society
4. Promote, develop & support healthy public policy, including
legislation, regulation & fiscal measures
5. Plan, fund, manage & evaluate health gain & capacity
building programmes designed to achieve measurable improvements
in health status, & to strengthen skills, competencies, systems
& infrastructure
6. Strengthen communities & build social capital through consultation,
participation & empowerment
7. Promote, develop, support & initiate actions which ensure
safe & healthy environments
8. Promote, develop & support healthy growth & development
throughout all life stages
9. Promote, develop & support actions to improve the health
status of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people & other
vulnerable groups
*Source: National Public Health Partnership (NPHP) (2000) Public
Health Practice in Australia today: A statement of core functions.
Melbourne: National Public Health Partnership. p. 2.
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Box 2: Multidimensional
public health – descriptive axes
The multidimensional nature of public health and the importance
of different descriptive axes is recognised in the following listing
(not exclusive). Detailed examination of a few selected axes will
form part of the development of the unified classification. [* indicates
selected axes]
* Public Health Functions (e.g. public health
core functions, management or overhead functions) and Activities/programs
that funds buy (e.g. public health expenditure activities).
* Determinants of Health / Risk and Protective
Factors (e.g. socio-environmental determinants, behavioural factors,
early life factors) and Disease/injury areas
(e.g. vaccine preventable diseases) that determine Intervention
targets.
* Toolkit: bodies of knowledge, methods and tools
– specific to public health (e.g. surveillance, health promotion,
epidemiology); or used by, but not specific to, public health
(e.g. management, policy development).
Geography/ Access to health services (e.g. Urban/Rural/Remote
geographic classification).
Intervention target or focus (e.g. target population
defined by age, sex, ethnicity).
Performance measures (e.g. the National Health
Performance Framework).
Precepts, Principles, Philosophy (e.g. ‘harm
minimisation’, ‘equity’, ‘user pays’).
Service production / provision (where produced/provided
e.g. institutional health services, non-institutional health services),
Service delivery/ Settings (where service delivered
e.g. school, workplace, community).
Sources of funds (e.g. Health/Non-health; levels
of government).
Time (e.g. time-lag, investment period, break-even
point).
Workforce (e.g. public health specialists, local
council workers, school nurses).
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Public Health Classifications Project useful websites and publications:
Public Health Classifications Project: Introductory letter, April 2006 [PDF, 26kb]
Public Health Classifications Project: Phase 1 final report, December 2005 [PDF, 1.75mb]
Public Health
Classification Project Background Paper, September 2004 [PDF, 177KB]
National
Delphi Study on Public Health Functions in Australia - Report on the findings
(January 2000) [PDF, 842kb] Appendices for this study are available
in National
Delphi Study - Appendices [PDF, 988kb]
National
Health Performance Committee (NHPC) (2001) National Health Performance
Framework Report. Brisbane: Queensland Health [PDF 230kb]
National
Health Performance Committee (NHPC). National Report on Health Sector
Performance Indicators 2001 . Brisbane: Queensland Health [PDF
419kb]
National
Public Health Partnership (2002) Public Health Performance Project:
Report to the National Public Health Partnership Group Melbourne:
National Public Health Partnership . [PDF 62kb]
National
Public Health Partnership (2000) Public Health Practice in Australia
today: A statement of core functions . Melbourne: National Public
Health Partnership.[PDF 751kb]
Riddout
L, Gadiel D, Cook K, Wise M (2002) Planning framework for the Public
Health workforce: Discussion Paper . Melbourne: National Public
Health Partnership. [PDF 329kb]
Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (1999) National Public Health
Information Development Plan 1999 . Jointly prepared by AIHW and
the National Public Health Information Working Group [PDF 435kb]
Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare ( AIHW) (2004) Information on Public
Health Expenditure.
Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) National public health expenditure
report 2000-01. Health and Welfare Expenditure Series no. HWE 25.
Canberra: AIHW. [PDF 665 kb]
Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) Health system expenditure on
disease and injury in Australia, 2000-01. Health and Welfare Expenditure
Series no. HWE 19. Canberra: AIHW. [PDF 665 kb]
Recent material from outside Australia
Bennett
J (2003) Investment in Population Health in Five OECD Countries
. OECD Health Working Papers No. 2. Paris : OECD. [PDF 637kb]
Khaleghian
P & Das Gupta M (2004) Public Management and the Essential
Public Health Functions . World Bank Policy Research Working Paper
3220. Washington, DC: The World Bank Group. [PDF 242kb]
National
Advisory Committee on SARS and Public Health (2003) Learning from
SARS: Renewal of Public Health in Canada. Ottawa: Health Canada.
[PDF 1.2 mb]
World
Health Organization (WHO), Regional Office for the Western Pacific (2003)
Essential public health functions: A three-country study in the Western
Pacific Region. Manila, Philippines: WHO, Regional Office for
the Western Pacific. [1.2 mb]
For enquiries about other work please contact
the NPHP Secretariat:
Phone: +61 3 9603 8338
Fax: +61 3 9603 8310
Email: nphp@dhs.vic.gov.au
CATI-TRG
The National Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing Technical Reference
Group (CATI TRG), a sub-committee of the National Public Health Information
Working Group, now have a website - www.nphp.gov.au/catitrg.
The sub-committee provides a focus for the development and promotion of
national standards, valid methods and capacity for CATI surveys to improve
health surveillance and health outcomes.
Population Health Monitoring and Surveillance:
Question Development Testing reports now available
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