Monitoring health inequalities is essential for achieving health equity. Health inequality monitoring uses health data disaggregated by relevant inequality dimensions (i.e. demographic, socioeconomic or geographical factors) in order to identify differences in health between different population subgroups. Disaggregated data provide evidence on who is being left behind and informs equity-oriented policies, programmes and practices.
The Health Equity Monitor database currently includes data for more than 30 reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) indicators, disaggregated by six dimensions of inequality (economic status, education, place of residence (rural vs. urban) and subnational region, as well as age and sex, where applicable). Data are based on more than 360 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and Reproductive Health Surveys (RHS) conducted in 112 countries in 1991-2017. 106 (95%) countries are low- or middle-income countries and for 88 countries (79%), data are available for at least two time points.
Health Equity Monitor data were derived from re-analysis of DHS, MICS and RHS micro-data. The analysis was done by the WHO Collaborating Center for Health Equity Monitoring (International Center for Equity in Health, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil).
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More information and resources about the topic of health equity can be found on the Health Equity Monitor theme page, including publications, interactive data visualizations and the Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT and HEAT PLUS):
http://www.who.int/gho/health_equity/en/index.html