Tuesday, May 13, 2008

[EQ] Rapid Evidence Assessment Toolkit index

Rapid Evidence Assessment Toolkit index


UK GSRU - Government Social Research Unit

 

Website: http://www.gsr.gov.uk/professional_guidance/rea_toolkit/sitemap.asp


“….A Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) is a tool for getting on top of the available research evidence on a policy issue, as comprehensively as possible, within the constraints of a given timetable.


The need for reviewing evidence

The increasing prominence of evidence-based principles has led to a need for Government departments and agencies to have ways of accessing, harnessing and using the best available research evidence for effective policy making – and the first step in this is to review what is already known. While existing evidence is clearly not the only source of information available to policy-makers, it is an obvious and vitally important strategy to determine what is already known about the issue in question….”


Reviewing evidence properly takes time, but there are various techniques that can be used. This toolkit will help researchers to identify whether a Rapid Evidence Assessment is best for their needs, and help with the process of planning and carrying out a review….”

 

                       Rapid Evidence Assessment Toolkit

 

What is an REA?

 

·         Methods for reviewing evidence:

o        Literature review

o        Quick scoping review

o        Rapid Evidence Assessment

o        Full systematic review

o        Multi arm systematic review

o              Review of reviews

 

Planning an REA

 

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This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.  [DD/ KMS Area] 

“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is".Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.

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[EQ] Statistical process control methods in public health intelligence

Statistical process control methods in public health intelligence

Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO)


Available online at:
http://www.erpho.org.uk/Download/Public/17155/1/Statistical%20Process%20Control%20FINAL.pdf

 

“…this briefing look at the uses of statistical process control (SPC) methods and associated visual display tools (control charts and funnel plots) in public health intelligence. The briefing provides a summary overview. Updates and more material, including methods and tools to support our Technical Briefing series will be made available through our website at http://www.apho.org.uk

 

“….Public health practice is highly dependent on the effective use of information, and commonly makes comparisons between areas, groups or institutions. Methods based on ranking, such as league tables or percentiles, have a number of flaws. The main problem with ranking is the implicit assumption that apparent differences between organisations are the results of better or poorer performance. Simply because institutions may produce different values for an indicator, and we naturally tend to rank these values, does not mean that we are observing variation in performance. All systems within which institutions operate, no matter how stable, will produce variable outcomes.

 

The questions we need to answer are: ‘Is the observed variation more or less than we would normally expect?’; ‘Are there genuine outliers?’; ‘Are there exceptionally good performers?’; ‘What reasons might there be for excess variation’, and so on. Alternative methods based on understanding variation may be more appropriate…”

 

 

APHO Technical Briefing 3: Commonly Used Public Health Statistics and their Confidence Intervals

 

The Good Indicators Guide: Understanding how to use and choose indicators

Technical Briefing 2: Statistical Process Control methods in public health intelligence

 

Technical Briefing 1: Sources of data on lifestyle risk factors in local populations

 

 

 

 

 *      *      *     * 

This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.  [DD/ KMS Area] 

“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is".Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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EQUITY List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html

 

 

 

 

    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.  

[EQ] The Public Health Observatory Handbook of Health Inequalities Measurement

The Public Health Observatory Handbook of Health Inequalities Measurement


Roy Carr-Hill and Paul Chalmers-Dixon - Edited by Jennifer Lin
Centre for Health Economics, University of York

The South East Public Health Observatory (SEPHO) is one of nine regional Observatories throughout England and Wales and is a member of the Association of Public Health Observatories

 

Available online at: http://www.sepho.org.uk/extras/rch_handbook.aspx#chapters

 

Table of Contents

Links will open in new window or you can right-click to download the file

Preface
Foreword

SECTION 1 Introduction
1.1 Inequality and its Measurement

SECTION 2 Measuring Inequality by Social Categories
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Proposed Categories
2.3 Features of the Social Environment that Might Lead to Inequalities

SECTION 3 Measuring Inequality by Health and Disease Categories (Using Data from Administrative Sources)
3.1 Mortality Data
3.2 Morbidity Data from Health Service Activity Statistics, Disease Registers and Similar Official Sources
3.3 General Practice/Primary Care Data
3.4 Acute Sector Data
3.5 Community Health Sector Data

SECTION 4 Measuring Inequality by Health and Disease Categories (Using Data from Surveys)
4.1 Health and Lifestyle Surveys
4.2 Regular Health and Lifestyle Surveys
4.3 Health Status and Symptom Report Questionnaires

SECTION 5 An Introduction to the Use of Indexes to Measure Deprivation
5.1 Background
5.2 Selecting an Index of Deprivation
5.3 The Properties of Deprivation Indexes
5.4 Sources of Further Information – Reviews of Indexes and Their Properties
5.5 Conclusion and Summary of Key Issues Concerning Indexes of Deprivation

SECTION 6 A Selection of Indexes of Multiple Deprivation
6.1 Indexes from Census or Administrative Data?
6.2 Census-Based Indexes
6.3 Indexes with a Majority of Non-Census Components
6.4 Geo-Classification and Other Area Classification Systems

SECTION 7 Indexes: Properties and Problems
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Measuring Disability and Limiting Illness with Indicators and Indexes
7.3 Key Aspects of the Construction and Structure of Indexes
7.4 Testing an Index
7.5 The Purpose of Testing
7.6 Matching the Index to the Application – Example of an Index for Policy Use
7.7 Pitfalls and Problems of Using Indexes
7.8 Conclusions

SECTION 8 Data Sources: Availablity and Problems
8.1 Introduction
8.2 The Area Base
8.3 Major National Archives and Sources
8.4 Data Sources on Specific Topics

SECTION 9 Designing Surveys to Measure Inequality
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Surveys and Their Limitations
9.3 Assuming You Have Decided on a Survey
9.4 Different Types of Survey
9.5 Summary

SECTION 10 Inequalities and Methods of Measurement
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Context
10.3 Properties of Indexes and Measurements
10.4 Approaches to Summarising Inequality
10.5 Measuring Inequalities in Health Over Time
10.6 Summary and Conclusions: Choosing between the Measures

SECTION 11 Context, History and Theory
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Context
11.3 The Principal Theoretical Frameworks for Approaching Inequalities
11.4 Summary and Conclusions

References

Appendix to Section 9

 

 

 

 *      *      *     * 

This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.  [DD/ KMS Area] 

"Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is".Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members".

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAHO/WHO Website: http://www.paho.org/
EQUITY List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html

 

 

 

    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.