The indicator issuance of a health status report is defined as situations where a board of health has issued a health status report or other health intelligence or information product that considered inequities in health outcomes and health determinants.

A health status report or other health intelligence or information product includes any publication designed for distribution to the public and partners that used health status statistics and provided analysis of these statistics to describe the inequity of health outcomes or health determinants among various populations in the public health unit's catchment area.

Issuing a health status report provides information about the community which the public health unit serves that can be used to guide programming and resource decisions. It also works to educate the community about the role of public health programs in keeping a community healthy.

Health status reports are usually customized to highlight local issues. They can be about a single issue or a specific population or age group, or they can provide an overview of the general health of a community, often in comparison to provincial or national averages.

All boards of health issued a local health status report between 2006 and 2008, with one exception, which issued a report in 2000.

Definition:

Indicates whether a board of health has issued a health status report or other health intelligence or information product that considered inequities in health outcomes and health determinants at any time in the past.

A health status report or other health intelligence or information product is defined as including any publication that was designed for distribution to the public that used health status statistics and provided analysis of these statistics to describe the equity of health outcomes or health determinants.

Data Source(s):

Survey of boards of health, 2008

Formula:

Yes and year; no

Notes:

• Many public health units publish high quality local health status reports that are available on their websites
• There is no standardized definition of inequities in health outcomes in order to compare results between health units
• Assessing only the existence of a report without assessment of the scope of the publication
• Relevance of the data in local reports is time sensitive; older reports may not be reflective of current situations
• Reporting includes both focused health issue reports and comprehensive community wide health status reports