Choosing the SIPHER health indicators

Abstract

The overarching aim of the SIPHER (Systems science In Public Health and health Economics Research) consortium is to use a complex systems perspective to foster and support a wider perspective on Public Health and the ways in which policy can shape this1. The three key research questions SIPHER aims to tackle are: 1. How can we capitalise on recent advances in complex systems science and multi-criteria optimisation to maximise the health-generating potential of public policy? 2. How can we design complex systems research processes, models and decision tools to be most useful to academic and policy audiences? 3. Which pathways and strategies best translate complex systems science evidence into policy? An important step in the pathway to answering these questions in practical terms is to establish an agreed definition of ‘health’. Modelling and evaluating the impact of public policy on health requires a shared understanding of how we conceptualise and measure health as an outcome. This short report describes the process and outcomes used to develop a set of ‘health indicators’ for use within SIPHER.