The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched the largest global collection of data on population health and inequalities, called the Health Inequality Data Repository (HIDR). The HIDR contains data regarding COVID-19, tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, reproductive, maternal, and child health, immunization, nutrition, healthcare, non-communicable diseases, environmental health, and the Sustainable Development Goals. The WHO aims to identify and address health inequality patterns using these data. The repository currently includes publicly available disaggregated data and is designed to support health equity by tracking health inequalities among populations over time.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently launched its Health Inequality Data Repository (HIDR), a comprehensive collection of data on population health and inequalities. The repository is designed to track health disparities across populations and improve outcomes. The HIDR is the largest global collection of such data to date, with just under 11 million data points from 59 datasets and 15 data sources.
The WHO aims to use these data to identify and address important health inequality patterns. The HIDR contains data regarding COVID-19, tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, reproductive, maternal, and child health, immunization, nutrition, healthcare, non-communicable diseases, environmental health, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The HIDR provides information on over 2,000 population health indicators, which are then broken down using 22 dimensions of inequality, such as geographic, demographic, and socioeconomic determinants of health. However, the HIDR’s data is limited, as disaggregated data are still not available for many health indicators within the repository.
Disparities in COVID-19 response:
Despite its limitations, HIDR’s data have already revealed significant inequalities in national COVID-19 responses. The data indicate that COVID-19 vaccination coverage among the most educated populations was at least 15 percentage points higher than among the least educated populations in more than a third of the 90 countries with data in HIDR.
The ability to direct services to those who need them the most is vital to advancing health equity and improving lives. The HIDR is designed as a one-stop-shop for data on health inequality, which will help move beyond only counting births and deaths, to disaggregating health data according to sex, age, education, region, and more. If the world is truly committed to leaving no one behind, it is necessary to figure out who is being missed.
Routine health inequality monitoring:
By releasing the repository, the WHO is urging countries to adopt routine health inequality monitoring, make disaggregated population health and health inequality data publicly available, expand data collection, and increase capacity for analysis and reporting. These analyses should be conducted at the global, national, and subnational levels, with health inequality monitoring incorporated into global and national indicators and targets.
Collaboration with countries:
As part of these efforts, WHO will collaborate with countries and other stakeholders to expand the HIDR each year. It is essential to continue collecting data and tracking health inequalities so that we can identify and address disparities in healthcare outcomes.
