Information package: National Health Index
The National Health Index is a statistical service which offers data describing the population’s health and work capacity, contrasting, for example, municipalities and wellbeing services counties with different demographic structures.
It combines data originally in the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare morbidity index and Kela’s Health Barometer, along with other national registers. The National Health Index was first launched in 2023 and is updated regularly.
National Health Index: Assessing and forecasting care needs among adults
Work is under way to set up a National Health Index for use in the prevention of health problems and for assessing and forecasting the care needs of adults. The goals are to:
- develop a National Health Index based on the earlier morbidity index of THL (the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare) and Health Barometer of Kela;
- supplement and review the contents of the index (subindices for different disease groups and the associated weighting coefficients, data related to work capacity);
- use the index to assess population health in municipalities and wellbeing services counties with different demographic structures;
- produce information on differences between population subgroups, including socioeconomic differences;
- use the index to study changes in population health over time and to forecast future trends;
- examine regional differences in the indicators/subindices relating to work capacity, taking into account the population structure, employment situation and the potential for disease prevention; and
- ensure that the index data are regularly updated and openly available.
Components of the National Health Index
Data from a variety of sources will be used in the calculation of the National Health Index:
- THL, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare: Care Register for Health Care, visits to healthcare professionals and hospitalisation periods
- The Finnish Cancer Registry: diagnosed cancers
- Statistics Finland: causes of death and population data
- Finnish Centre for Pensions: disability pension awards
- Kela: reimbursements for medicine expenses and other health-based benefits
The National Health Index consists of subindices that cover the disease groups and health problems that are the most common and generate the greatest disease burden. The goal is to ensure that the index is not limited to describing potential differences in diagnostic and treatment practices or in the way entries are made in the patient information systems.
The Index covers the following categories of disease:
- cancers
- cardiovascular diseases
- diabetes
- dementia
- musculoskeletal diseases
- serious mental illnesses
- accidents
- chronic respiratory diseases
- alcohol disorders.
In determining the burden caused by the different health problems, the prevalence of each health problem is weighted based on the associated
- costs
- effects on quality of life
- mortality
- incapacity for work.
There are also efforts to develop and evaluate a new subindex to address disability more comprehensively.
How to read the index data
The purpose of the National Health Index is to identify the most common health problems with the largest disease burden in each region, providing data on their impact and the changes that can be observed over time.
The National Health Index describes the health and work capacity of the population of wellbeing services counties and municipalities in relation to Finland’s entire population (entire population = 100). The higher the incidence of morbidity or incapacity for work in a region, the higher the index score.
The National Health Index comes in both age-standardised and non-standardised versions. The age-standardised version eliminates the impact of age structure on the results, thus making them suitable for cross-regional comparison, while the non-age-standardised index describes the actual disease burden in the region.
In addition to the age structure of the population, there are many other factors underlying regional differences in morbidity and incapacity for work. Lifestyle habits, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, sleep, and eating habits have an impact on the statistics, but those habits are in turn the result of many different factors. Unemployment, personal finances and education are all reflected in the health and work capacity of the population. Access to functioning social welfare and healthcare services is also important, as are cultural and genetic factors.
More about the National Health Index
Read more
Partner organisations
Sources of financing
- Kela
- Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare
Contact information
- Kati Sarnola, Senior Researcher, Kela.
