A working guide to international comparisons of health

Preliminary material: Acknowledgments; Abbreviations

Summary

• Why are international health comparisons so popular?
• International comparisons can be complex
• What this guide adds
• Checklist for international comparisons of health

1. Introduction

• How can health be compared between countries?
• Sources and uses of international health-related data
• How this guide is structured

2. Making comparisons: considerations and complexities

• Data quality
• Are the data defined consistently across countries?
• Do all countries use the same method to collect the data?
• Do the data cover similar parts of the population?
• Do the data refer to the same time period?
• Choice of countries
• Are countries sufficiently similar to support comparison?
• Presentation of results
• Are the data presented appropriately?
• Is the variation between countries adequately explained?
• Are differences within countries considered?
• Can the data be used outside of an international comparison?

3. Conclusion

Appendix: Checklist for international comparisons of health-related data

End matter: References; List of tables; List of figures; List of boxes