Health at a Glance: Europe 2018, the first step in the State of Health in the EU cycle, is the result of close co-operation between the OECD and the European Commission. The preparation of this publication was led by the OECD, and the Commission provided guidance and technical support throughout the process.
This publication would not have been possible without the effort of national data correspondents from the 36 countries who have provided most of the data and the metadata presented in this report, and financial support provided by the European Union. This publication also benefitted from many useful comments from members of the Commission’s Expert Group on Health Information (EGHI), as well as from several officials in the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).
This report was prepared by a team from the OECD Health Division under the co‐ordination of Gaétan Lafortune. Chapter 1 on mental health promotion was prepared by Emily Hewlett, Gaétan Lafortune, Eileen Rocard and David Morgan. The preparation of Chapter 2 on strategies to reduce wasteful spending in health systems was led by Agnès Couffinhal, Ruth Lopert and Gaétan Lafortune, with inputs by Elina Suzuki, Michael Padget, Gaëlle Balestat, Eileen Rocard, Marie-Clémence Canaud and Roi Meshulam. Chapter 3 on the health status of populations was prepared by Eileen Rocard and Gaétan Lafortune. Chapter 4 on risk factors to health was prepared by Marion Devaux and Ivan Tzintzun, with inputs by Joao Matias and Katerina Skarupova from the EMCDDA for indicators related to alcohol consumption among children and illegal drug consumption among both children and adults, and with inputs from Marta Buoncristiano and Joao Breda from WHO Europe for the indicator on childhood obesity. Michael Mueller, James Cooper, David Morgan and Jens Wilkens prepared Chapter 5 on health expenditure and financing, with input by Sebastiano Lustig. Chapter 6 on effectiveness (including quality of care and patient experience) was prepared by Rie Fujisawa, with inputs by Eileen Rocard and Gaétan Lafortune for the indicator on avoidable mortality, by Yuka Nishina for the indicators on cancer care and by Michael Padget from the OECD Health Division and Carl Suetensfrom the ECDC for the indicator related to health care-associated infections. Chapter 7 on accessibility was prepared by Gaétan Lafortune, Gaëlle Balestat, Michael Mueller and Marie-Clémence Canaud, with input by Jon Cylus, Sarah Thomson and Tamas Evetovits from the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies for the indicator related to the financial burden of out-of-pocket spending for health services and goods. Chapter 8 on the resilience of health systems was prepared by Luke Slawomirski, Gaétan Lafortune, David Morgan and Gaëlle Balestat, with inputs by Marc Struelens and Katrin Leitmeyer from the ECDC for the indicator related to public health laboratory capacity. Editorial assistance was provided by Ruth Lopert, Marie-Clémence Canaud, Lucy Hulett and Kate Cornford (on Chapter 1). This publication also benefited from useful comments from Francesca Colombo, Chris James and Valérie Paris from the OECD Health Division.
Many useful comments were also received from the European Commission. Special thanks go to DG SANTE’s State of Health in the EU team for their advice during the project and the co-ordination of inputs from different officials across the Commission.