Abstract
Increasingly attention is being paid to evidence-based health policy in health services (Ham et al., 1995; Smith, 1995). Yet the evidence base for making many policy decisions is deficient, and better information systems are needed to inform the process (Tollman and Zwi, 2000). With the possible exception of the United States, national health authorities have not completely accepted the value of population-based surveillance systems that would better inform their decision making and allow them to monitor health outcomes and related cost benefit. In this chapter, I argue that traditional sources of data, provided largely from cross-sectional studies or from morbidity and mortality collections, are not in themselves adequate for planning. To effectively address health problems, a sustained source of data is necessary for health authorities to (1) identify key health problem areas that require attention, (2) analyse the underlying reasons for continuation of the problems, (3) assess the circumstances in which investment can be most effective, and (4) monitor the impact of solutions.
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Wilson, D.H. (2003). Comparison of Surveillance Data on Metropolitan and Rural Health. In: McQueen, D.V., Puska, P. (eds) Global Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0071-1_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0071-1_9
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