"Our measurement of the health-related SDG indicators is subject to the limitations of the broader GBD 2017 study and its estimation processes; details can be found in the accompanying GBD 2017 capstone papers23–27 and in appendix 1 (part 1). Beyond these limitations, there are other important limitations that are specific to this analysis."First, for measurement of health worker density we used ISCO 88 codes as the base classification system instead of ISCO 08, which is a more recent system than ISCO 88 that offers greater detail and standardisation. However, few occupational data sources currently include ISCO 08 codes, and benchmarking…
McKee on the WHO World Health Report 2000
"The main criticisms were, however, of technical aspects of the methods used to assess performance. By common consent those undertaking this exercise faced a major problem if they were to include all 192 WHO Member States, some of which barely functioned as states and certainly lacked control over all of their territory. Many lacked even the most basic of information. Only a minority had any functioning system of vital registration, so if measures such as health outcomes were to be included they had to be modelled. This would be complicated enough if only the simplest of measures, such as life…
Reinhardt and Cheng on the WHO World Health Report 2000
"First, the WHO research team should have been sure that their estimates are robust. Can they, in good conscience, make that claim? An artificially high ranking, for example, could take the wind out of the sails of desirable health-reform efforts. Similarly, an artificially low ranking could assign a bad grade to past reform efforts that were actually commendable. Rumour in the health services research community has it that France’s no.1 rank was driven in part by a flawed measure of national educational attainment. Under the methodology used by WHO, the more the level of educational attainment or of health spending…
Healthcare Access and Quality Index: Limitations
"Our analysis is subject to limitations beyond those already described. First, any limitations in GBD 2016 cause-of-death estimation are also applicable to this study.27 For GBD 2016, we aimed to better account for cause-of-death data quality by developing a metric for well-certified deaths and using this measure to inform GBD data standardisation and correction processes. Nonetheless, establishing and maintaining high-quality vital registration systems is essential to improved cause-of-death estimation. For instance, abrupt or prolonged conflict can lead to cause-of-death data gaps or lags in reporting; subsequently, HAQ Index performance might not yet fully capture the ramifications of conflict on health…
