2 ________________________________ European Demographic Research Papers are working papers that deal with all-European issues or with issues that are important to a large number of countries. All contributions have received only limited review. Abstract Conventional indicators of human lifespan (Graunt 1661; Chiang 1984) are based on a hypothetical synthesis of the mortality conditions of diffe...

BACKGROUND Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is currently the third most common cause of death in the world. Patients with COPD experience airflow obstruction, weight loss, skeletal muscle dysfunction, and comorbidities. Anthropometric indicators are risk factors for mortality in geriatric assessment. PURPOSE This study examined and compared the associations of anthropometric indic...

CONTEXT Publicly released report cards on hospital performance are increasingly common, but whether they are an effective method for improving quality of care remains uncertain. OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether the public release of data on cardiac quality indicators effectively stimulates hospitals to undertake quality improvement activities that improve health care processes and patient outcom...

Neonatal mortality accounts for 43% of under-five mortality. Consequently, improving newborn survival is a global priority. However, although there is increasing consensus on the packages and specific interventions that need to be scaled up to reduce neonatal mortality, there is a lack of clarity on the indicators needed to measure progress. In 2008, in an effort to improve newborn survival, th...

Background: Gender inequality harms the health of millions of women and girls in all over the world. This study aimed to identify the state of gender equity in the health sector of the Islamic Republic of Iran.   Methods: This study was based on the secondary analysis of the available data in four provinces. The research team held three sessions to select the appropriate indicators for ...

BACKGROUND Results of associations between process and mortality indicators, both used for the external assessment of hospital care quality or public reporting, differ strongly across studies. However, most of those studies were conducted in North America or United Kingdom. Providing new evidence based on French data could fuel the international debate on quality of care indicators and help inf...

OBJECTIVE To compare two summary indicators for monitoring universal coverage of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health care. METHODS Using our experience of the Countdown to 2015 initiative, we describe the characteristics of the composite coverage index (a weighted average of eight preventive and curative interventions along the continuum of care) and co-coverage index (a cumulati...