PUNE: Global data on health and demographic indicators generated in 48 field sites across 20 countries including India is now available online. Its free access is expected to improve evidence-based health research findings in India and other countries.
Pune-based KEM hospital's Vadu centre is one of the two surveillance sites in the country which is part of this global initiative. Ballabgarh, located in Faridabad district in Haryana, is the other field site.
"The International Network for Demographic Evaluation of Population and Their Health (INDEPTH Network), currently consists of 48 field sites known as health and demographic surveillance system (HDSS) in 20 countries including India, launched two data archives — the INDEPTH Data Repository and INDEPTHStats — on Monday. The access to this data is free," said Sanjay Juvekar, senior research scientist at the Vadu centre.
Both HDSS sites cover over a population of 1.5 lakh which is medically assessed periodically. Data is generated on diseases and deaths are collated and compiled for further analysis. Similarly, demographic indicators including issues pertaining to migrants are also meticulously kept and analyzed. All this data generated at the two sites in India has been archived and is freely available online.
"The free access to the data will help individuals working in public health across the globe," Juvekar said.
The INDEPTH Data Repository (www.indepth-ishare.org) is an online archive of high-quality datasets from INDEPTH member Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) centres. It is the first data repository that specialises in longitudinal population-based data from low and middle-income countries.
INDEPTHStats (www.indepth-ishare.org/indepthstats) is a website developed by the INDEPTH Network and freely available to the public. It contains summary statistics, images and graphs of key health and demographic indicators generated from the INDEPTH member HDSS centres.
INDEPTHStats will provide researchers, government officials and policymakers with information that can guide their decision-making, including birth and death rates, age-specific fertility and death rates, infant, child, and under-five mortality rates, and numerous other health and demographic indicators. Additional indicators, such as death rates by cause, will be added.
Making data available and free-of-charge to everyone has been made possible by funding from various global charitable foundations, trusts and research cooperation units including Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Rockefeller Foundation, Gates Foundation, and World Health Organisation combined with the generous, free provision of the data by the members of HDSS.
"The data is subjected to rigorous technical checks, first at the individual HDSS and then within INDEPTH. New data will be added annually," Juvekar said.
Source: http://to.ly/mclg
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