Development and implementation of the Child Health Monitoring Information System for systematic monitoring of children’s health condition and purposeful health policy making

Project facts

Project promoter:
Institute of Hygiene
Project Number:
LT11-0001
Target groups
Civil servants/Public administration staff
Status:
Completed
Initial project cost:
€1,770,540
Final project cost:
€1,770,422
From Norway Grants:
€ 1,504,859
The project is carried out in:
Lithuania

Description

In Lithuania, the current system of exchange of information on child health is not effective. There is no possibility to analyse aggregated data at national level or even to compare data of child health between municipalities. In order to assess the effectiveness of preventive measures and variations of incidence/morbidity in time and space, it is necessary to create a unified national monitoring system of child health. The main objective of the project is to further develop a child health monitoring information system (CHM IS) and to implement the system for systematic monitoring of children’s health condition and purposeful health policy making. The expected achievements are to cover 50 municipalities by the child health monitoring information system; to prepare a users’ guide (1) on child health monitoring information system and to prepare a template (1) for the annual child health monitoring report on municipal level.The target groups are public health specialists working in educational institutions, municipal public health specialists in public health bureaus, specialists of central data management institutions and primary health care professionals.

Summary of project results

According to the data of Health Information Center of Institute of Hygiene, 459 359 from 543 756 children (up to 17 year) were ill in 2013. 1 350 426 new disease cases were registered in 2013 (it means that 1 child was ill at an average of 3 times per year). In fact, childrens morbidity or incidence could be reduced by apropriate preventive measures, thus reducing direct and indirect expenditures of national budget of Lithuania. In order to assess the effectiveness of preventive measures and variations of incidence / morbidity in time and space, there was necessity to create a unified national child health monitoring information system (hereinafter – CHM IS). Before project implementation, primary health care professionals and public health specialists used the statistical form 027-1/a “Child Health Certificate” in order to ensure the exchange of information about children’s health. There was no single data source available to everyone, data was collected non-systematically and used differently in various public institutions and administrative territories. There was no possibility to analise data in national level, or even to compare with other municipalities data of child health. This project‘s objective was to develop CHM IS and implement it for systematic monitoring of the children’s health condition and purposeful health policy making. CHM IS is intended for the analysis of preventive child health check-up and morbidity data by ensuring access to health data to a wider circle of specialists at the national and municipal levels and ensuring the protection of personal data. The data collected in the CHM IS are useful for formation and implementation of health policy, for planning and implementation of effective preventive measures and for improving quality of public health services. After implementing the Project developed CHM IS allows to monitor the country's school-age population health status changes, and children‘s health improvement decisions now will be taken on the basis of objective and complete data collected in the CHM IS. The developed model of the Child Health Monitoring Information System provides the main and supplementary child health data sources, the calculated indicators and the information system opportunities related to data visualization and presentation.

Summary of bilateral results