Methodological Approach to Assessing the Quality of Public Health

Abstract

Introduction: The article describes a methodological approach to elaborating the public health quality index used to reflect the true size of the medical and social resource of the society. The method of calculation takes into account both social and medical components. The public health quality index is calculated in accordance with the idea that a certain category of people has more opportunities to perform a social function. The proposed approach makes it possible to move from general assessments of public health to true ones. Objective: To develop a methodological approach to calculating the public health quality index. Materials and methods: To calculate the public health quality index, age ranges of people were selected, considering their physical fitness to perform social functions. To improve the accuracy of the assessment, each social function was weighted by systematizing expert assessments. The calculated Kendall concordance coefficient (0.7) demonstrated a high degree of expert consistency. The index was calculated considering recommendations of “The Urban Health Index: A Handbook for its Calculation and Use” (2014) by the World Health Organization. Results: According to expert opinions, the most significant social function is the ability of fertile women to realize their reproductive function while the least significant is the ability of elderly people to continue working in the next 5 years after retirement. The aspect related to the ability of men to reproduce has been also considered of great importance. Conclusion: During the study, the question was raised about the possibility of clarifying the methodology for calculating the public health index given the goals of public administration. This index should be considered as a monitoring tool available in the current period to counter emerging public health challenges.