Bulletin

Issue: January/February 2004

News

Does she, or he, get better health care?

Do we have equitable health services and outcomes for men and women in all countries?

Nobody knows the answers to this socially and politically sensitive question - and we won't until standardised ways of reporting 'indicators' for health and health care are devised and used internationally.

This was the basis of a recent report from La Trobe University Head of Public Health, Professor Vivian Lin, to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Kobe Centre. Professor Lin presented the results of the study at the Fourth International Meeting on Women and Health held in Tanzania.

Leading a seven-person Australian team - that included Ms Kate Silburn and Ms Gai Wilson from the University's Australian Institute of Primary Care, and student, Ms Carolyn Poljski - Professor Lin examined a decade of literature relating to an extensive range of international health care indicators. These were assessed within a health information framework based on work by the Canadian and Australian governments, as well as the OECD and the International Standards Organisation.

'The audit revealed a number of persistent criticisms about health indicators used at the global level such as technical difficulties like poor consistency in data definition and inability to monitor change over time,' Professor Lin said.

Professor Lin's report said the capacity to monitor the performance of the health system in relation to gender equity and health was a major weakness at global and national levels.

It concluded that a way forward could be a participatory process of key stakeholders. The WHO Kobe Centre is scheduled to begin this process late this year.

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