A public health observatory is an organization or program that monitors and reports on the

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

of a particular region or topic in order to inform health policy. Depending on the geographical area or focus of work, it may also be called a "regional health observatory", "urban health observatory", or "national health observatory". In 2016, a study in the ''

European Journal of Public Health The ''European Journal of Public Health'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed public health journal. It was established in 1991 and is published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. The editor-in-chief is Peter ...

'' catalogued at least 150 public health observatories worldwide, and that their main functions were reporting on health, performing data analysis, and supporting

evidence-based Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the idea that occupational practices ought to be based on scientific evidence. While seemingly obviously desirable, the proposal has been controversial, with some arguing that results may not specialize to indiv ...

decision-making. A public health observatory does not generate primary data itself, and instead focuses on synthesizing and collecting existing data.

Environmental health Environmental health is the branch of public health concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment affecting human health. In order to effectively control factors that may affect health, the requirements that must be met in ...

diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

, recreation, outdoor education, exercise and other concerns are explored by some public health observatories.

Examples

International

* The

Global Health Observatory The Global Health Observatory (GHO) is a public health observatory established by the World Health Organization (WHO) to share data on global health, including statistics by country and information about specific diseases and health measures. The GH ...

, established and operated by the

World Health Organization (WHO) The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of ...

. * Th
Integrated African Health Observatory
also established and operated by the WHO. *The

European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies is a public health observatory established through an intergovernmental partnership, hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, which specialises in the develo ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Brazil

* Th
Observatory of Climate and Health (''Observatório de Clima e Saúde'')
in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

combines the monitoring of public health with monitoring of climate change and its effects.

France

The term is used in French (and has been since at least 1976) to denote any institution that compiles and presents data on a particular subject or for a particular area, generally established so that local or regional policymakers can make decisions with access to interpreted data appropriate to the scope of their geographical area. A survey in 1999 recorded that there were over 500 different observatories at the local, regional, and national levels, focusing on a variety of topics. * Th
National Federation of Regional Health Observatories
''(FNORS - Fédération nationale des observatoires régionaux de la santé)'' has 16 member regional health observatories, or ORS ''(Observatoire regional de santé)''. * The first public health observatory in France, established in 1974, is the Regional Observatory of Health of

Île-de-France The Île-de-France (, ; literally "Isle of France") is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France. Centred on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the ''Région parisienne'' (; en, Pa ...

(''ORS d’Ile-de-France)'' in Paris. It is a member of FNORS. * Th
Regional Observatory of Health
for

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (; or , ; commonly shortened to PACA; en, Provence-Alps-French Riviera, italic=yes; also branded as Région Sud) is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, the far southeastern on the mainland. Its pref ...

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

is a fully independent ORS.

Switzerland

* Th
Swiss Health Observatory (Obsan)
in Neuchâtel is a joint project of the Swiss

Federal Department of Home Affairs The Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA, , french: Département fédéral de l'intérieur, links=no, , rm, ) is a department of the federal administration of Switzerland and serves as the Swiss ministry of the interior. As of 2012, it is ...

and th
Conference of Cantonal Health Directors

United Kingdom

From 1999 until 2013, there was a network of public health observatories in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

until they were absorbed into

Public Health England Public Health England (PHE) was an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in England which began operating on 1 April 2013 to protect and improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. Its formation came as a ...

, which was itself moved into the

UK Health Security Agency The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is a government agency in the United Kingdom, responsible since April 2021 for England-wide public health protection and infectious disease capability, and replacing Public Health England. It is an executiv ...

in 2021. There are currently operating health observatories i
Wales
an
Scotland
there was at some point one i
Ireland
There are and were also some topic-specific observatories, such as th
Child and Maternal Health Intelligence Network
(ChiMat), still operating as of 2021; th
Injury Observatory for Britain and Ireland (IOBI)
the Mental Health Observatory, and the National Obesity Observatory are all no longer in operation. The London Health Observatory pioneered methods in measuring social capital and how this affects

healing With physical trauma or disease suffered by an organism, healing involves the repairing of damaged tissue(s), organs and the biological system as a whole and resumption of (normal) functioning. Medicine includes the process by which the cells ...

and

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

in general.{{Citation needed, date=September 2021

References

Public health