Assessments and developments in constructing a National Health Index for policy-making in the UK: published!

My collaborative work with Anna Freni-Sterrantino, Chris Holmes, and Myer Glickman and Greg Ceely at the ONS is now published at the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A.

The accompanying code is available on Github.

Abstract: Composite indicators are useful for summarizing and comparing changes among different communities. The UK Office for National Statistics has created an annual England Health Index (2015–2018) comprised of three main health domains—lives, places, and people—to monitor health over time and across different geographical areas and evaluate the nation’s health. We reviewed the conceptual coherence and statistical requirements, focusing on three main steps: correlation analysis at different levels, comparison of the implemented weights, and a sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. Based on the results, we have highlighted features that have improved the statistical requirements of the forthcoming UK Health Index.