Need help finding information and data on Global Health? Try these top online resources
These key online resources will help you plan teaching and learning activities and help find information to compare global health standards to "mainstream" Australia.
Read a brief overview and use the direct links to go straight to the resource websites. The resources are grouped into 3 categories:
1. World statistics
2. Australian statistics
3. Indigenous Australians statistics
The World Health Organisation Statistical Information System (WHOSIS) is an interactive database bringing together core health statistics for the 193 WHO Member States. It comprises more than 70 indicators, which can be accessed by way of a quick search, by major categories, or through user-defined tables. The data can be further filtered, tabulated, charted and downloaded. The data are also published annually in the World Health Statistics Report released in May.
The World Health Report, first published in 1995, is WHO's leading publication. Each year the report combines an expert assessment of global health, including statistics relating to all countries, with a focus on a specific subject. The main purpose of the report is to provide countries, donor agencies, international organizations and others with the information they need to help them make policy and funding decisions. The report is also offered to a wider audience, from universities, teaching hospitals and schools, to journalists and the public at large - anyone, in fact, with a professional or personal interest in international health issues.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is Australia's national agency for health and welfare statistics and information. Its mission is: Better information and statistics for better health and wellbeing. The AIHW works closely with all State, Territory and Australian Government health, housing and community services agencies in collecting, analysing and disseminating data.
The AIHW is an Australian Government statutory authority accountable to Parliament and operate under the provisions of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987. The Act ensures that the data collections we manage are kept securely and under the strictest conditions with respect to privacy and confidentiality.
The burden of disease and injury in Australia 2003' provides a comprehensive assessment of the health status of Australians. The report measures mortality, disability, impairment, illness and injury arising from 176 diseases, injuries and risk factors using a common metric, the disability-adjusted life year or DALY, and methods developed by the Global Burden of Disease Study. Burden of disease analysis gives a unique perspective on health. Fatal and non-fatal outcomes are integrated, but can be examined separately as well.
This report provides detailed estimates of the burden of mortality and disability for each disease and injury category by sex and age. It also assesses the burden attributable to each of 14 major risk factors, and inequalities in the disease burden associated with socioeconomic disadvantage.
(Published 25 May 2007. Begg S, Vos T, Barker B, Stevenson C, Stanley L & Lopez A)
This report brings together, from a variety of sources, information about the health and welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Much of the data comes from sources that cover all Australians but which separately identify Indigenous Australians. The report primarily presents a broad picture at the national level, and wherever possible, uses existing and new data sources to reflect the diversity of the Indigenous population, including a separate chapter on Torres Strait Islander people. Also where possible, changes over time in the health and welfare outcomes for Indigenous people are described.
(Published 26 August 2005; Authored by ABS & AIHW)
The Burden of Disease and Injury in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples 2003 provides the first comprehensive assessment of the burden of disease of Indigenous Australians.
Burden of disease analysis gives a unique perspective on health. Fatal and non-fatal outcomes are combined, but can be examined separately as well. This report provides details of the extent of premature mortality and disability estimated for over 170 disease and injury categories and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in remote and non-remote areas of Australia. It also presents estimates of the amount of disease and injury caused by 11 major risk factors.
(Published September 2007. Vos T, Barker B, Stanley L & Lopez A)
