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Completed Projects Health

  • (1) Un poster sur le dépistage du Cancer du sein en Région bruxelloise
  • (2) APHEKOM
  • (3) Inégalités sociales de santé (FRB)
  • (4) Local diagnosis of the problems and needs of the Brussels municipalities
  • (5) A feasibility study on the use of data by the Common Sickness Funds Agency (Agence Intermutualiste), as part of the tasks of the Health and Social Observatory.
  • (6) Living at home after the age of 65. Atlas of the needs and stakeholders in Brussels (2004-2007)
  • (7) Brussels-Capital Health and Social Atlas (2005-2006)
  • (8) Comparison between the 2001 health survey and the 2001 socio-economic survey
  • (9) Background factors and volunteer aid in Brussels
  • (10) Development of a Perinatal Epidemiology Centre for Brussels and the French Community

(1) Un poster sur le dépistage du Cancer du sein en Région bruxelloise

A l’occasion du 5ème Congrès International d’Epidémiologie organisé par ADELF/EPITER à Bruxelles en septembre 2012, l’Observatoire de la santé et du social a présenté un poster ayant pour titre : "Analyses spatiales croisées de données issues de diverses sources médico-administratives de routine pour évaluer le programme de dépistage du cancer du sein en Région bruxelloise".

Ayant constaté que les taux de dépistage du cancer du sein à Bruxelles montrent des inégalités entre communes, cette analyse avait pour objectif d’aider à mieux comprendre et agir sur ces inégalités. Différents facteurs susceptibles d’influencer le cancer du sein et la pratique du dépistage ont été cartographiés ou mis en graphique, en explorant diverses hypothèses et en mobilisant diverses sources de routine.

Cette analyse montre, in fine, que la confrontation de ces données diverses et issues de sources médico-administratives de routine permet de rendre cohérentes des distributions spatiales qui, à première vue, semblaient paradoxales. Cet exercice illustre une des méthodes d’intégration d’informations qui permettent à l’Observatoire d’assurer sa mission d’aide à la décision.

Vous pouvez consulter ce poster ici (link is external)

(pour découvrir ce qui se cache derrière les « ? », il suffit de cliquer dessus).

(2) APHEKOM

The APHEKOM (Improving Knowledge and Communication for Decision Making on Air Pollution and Health in Europe) project brings together numerous cities in Europe. Coordinated by the Institut de veille sanitaire (InVS Paris), it is jointly financed by the European Commission (in the framework of the Community action programme for pubic health) and by the institutions participating in the project.

In concrete terms, during the two and half years of the project, the 35 Aphekom project scientists and specialists, working in 25 European cities, will propose and communicate new health impact indicators and determine the related costs. They will assess strategies designed to reduce air pollution and will promote a dialogue between the stakeholders. Finally, they will offer advice to health professionals on the measures to be taken by patients to reduce their exposure to air pollution.

In this project, the Brussels-Capital region is represented by Brussels-Environment. An agreement has been signed between Brussels Environment and Brussels-Capital Health and Social Observatory to provide data, on health among other topics, contribute methodological support and foster synergies and partnerships with the Brussels institutions working in the same areas, in order to implement the project’s recommendations by integrating the unique characteristics of the Brussels-Capital Region.

(3) Inégalités sociales de santé (FRB)

La Fondation Roi Baudoin (FRB) développe depuis 2006 des initiatives spécifiques visant à lutter contre les inégalités sociales de santé dans notre pays (voir http://www.kbs-frb.be/otheractivity.aspx?id=193904&LangType=2060 (link is external)). Au décours des années 2006 à 2008, la Fondation a mis l’accent sur la nécessité de placer les inégalités sociales de santé plus haut sur l’agenda politique. Un groupe de travail composé de personnes des secteurs de la santé et du social a formulé des recommandations. Dans son plan stratégique 2009-2011, la Fondation décide de collaborer à la réduction des inégalités de santé en soutenant, développant et évaluant des projets exemplatifs concrets au niveau local.

Ce projet s’est réalisé à travers l’encadrement et le soutien financier par la FRB de partenaires régionaux (VVSG, VIGEZ, l’Observatoire wallon de la santé (OWS) et l’Observatoire de la santé et du social de Bruxelles) afin de pouvoir tenir compte des contextes (politiques) régionaux spécifiques.

Les différents axes du projet ont consisté en :

  • Le développement d’un outil d’évaluation (travail initial de l’Université de Gand), permettant à tout projet en cours ou en démarrage de « tester » son projet en regard des inégalités de santé. Cet outil bilingue est consultable en français (‘lentille ISS’) sur le site www.inegalitesdesante.be (link is external) et en NL (‘SONG Scan’) sur le site www.ongelijkgezond.be (link is external)
  • Le repérage de « bonnes pratiques » locales en matière de lutte contre les inégalités sociales de santé
  • Le lancement par la FRB de trois appels à projets régionaux dans lequel les partenaires régionaux ont contribué à définir le cadre et le suivi
  • La mise en place de plateformes régionales d’accompagnement.

De 2009 à 2010, l’Observatoire de la Santé et du Social a participé au projet dans chaque axe:

  • Nous avons fait une analyse commentée de l’outil d’évaluation et accompagné le test d’utilisation par deux associations
  • D’une part, sous forme de recherche-action, nous avons accompagné la réflexion de deux projets locaux quant à leur action dans la lutte contre les inégalités sociales de santé, permettant d’identifier les facteurs qui facilitent ou handicapent ces pratiques ; d’autre part, nous avons effectué avec l’aide du LOGO, CLPS, BVS et CDCS, un inventaire des projets ou autres activités d’organisations bruxelloises qui œuvrent pour la réduction des inégalités sociales de santé
  • Dans la cadre de l’appel à projets, nous avons choisi pour la Région bruxelloise le public cible des jeunes adultes (18-25 ans) ; on retrouvera le texte de l’appel à projets sur le site de la FRB (http://www.kbs-frb.be/call.aspx?id=266070&LangType=2060 (link is external)). 5 projets ont été choisis par le jury de la FRB et les conditions de suivi et d’évaluation ont été discutées
  • La mise en place d’une plateforme bruxelloise bicommunautaire réunissant les acteurs bruxellois actifs dans le domaine de la santé a été initiée. Pour ce faire, un groupe de pilotage a été constitué avec le CLPS, le LOGO et Bruxelles-Ville-Santé et la plateforme a été ouverte à une vingtaine d’acteurs bruxellois. Le mandat et le futur de cette plateforme sont actuellement en discussion

(4) Local diagnosis of the problems and needs of the Brussels municipalities

As part of its “Social Cohesion” Decree, the French Community commissioned an analysis of the problems and needs of the Brussels municipalities with regard to social cohesion. This analysis was intended to help the local municipal coordination centres draw up their state of play report with a view to preparing their new five-year plan for the period 2011-2015.

This analysis was being carried out by IGEAT-ULB (link is external) in collaboration with the Health and Social Observatory. In concrete terms, it involves updating and developing the Observatory's municipality files: health and social statistics per municipality for 2006 (French (link is external)- Dutch (link is external)). Indicators linked to housing and education (with figures from both the French and Flemish Communities) were also introduced.

Alongside the 19 municipality files and an information sheet for the Region, an instruction manual will also be drafted to help local stakeholders interpret the data for their municipality. A third and final document entitled "sources and references" is intended to provide guidance for local stakeholders when they want to search the databases themselves.

(5) A feasibility study on the use of data by the Common Sickness Funds Agency (Agence Intermutualiste), as part of the tasks of the Health and Social Observatory.

The objective of this feasibility study is to determine to what extent relevant and valid indicators for monitoring the state of health of the Brussels population at the regional level and/or statistical district level can be drafted from data compiled by the Common Sickness Funds Agency (“Agence Intermutualiste”, AIM).

This research, carried out in collaboration with the Common Sickness Funds Agency (link is external), is performed by researchers from the Ecole de santé publique (link is external) at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (for health indicators) and the Interface Demography (link is external) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (for socio-demographic information); it is coordinated by the Health and Social Observatory.

The work of the university researchers is funded by the Observatory (under "operating expenses" of the 2006, 2007 and 2008 budgets).

(6) Living at home after the age of 65. Atlas of the needs and stakeholders in Brussels (2004-2007)

The objective of the “Brussels-Capital Health and Social Atlas” project was to compare data pertaining to the health and welfare situation of inhabitants of Brussels with data on the existing health and welfare services.

The aim was to approach this ambitious task in various stages. Although inventories of certain services offered by various institutional authorities (for example by the French Community Commission COCOF and the Flemish Community Commission VGC) existed, there had never been an attempt to produce a combined inventory covering all services. As this type of work was not part of the Observatory's core activities, various partners were approached.

The Observatory first contacted the Social Documentation and Coordination Centre (CDCS-CMDC) to collaborate on the project. This not-for-profit association has considerable experience in gathering data on health and welfare services operating in the Brussels-Capital Region.
As the collaboration of the various Brussels authorities (Joint Community Commission GGC/CCC, COCOF and VGC) was indispensable, they were also invited to participate in this project

The Observatory organised meetings with the various partners in order to discuss the actual content of the project. We were able to launch the content work once each of the parties involved had been convinced of the usefulness of the project and all the steps necessary for formalising the collaboration project had been completed.

A first major obstacle to be overcome was the need to identify the best approach to listing the services offered. As each authority has its own approach to the deployment of the services it offers, it was not possible simply to add up the services subsidised by the various authorities. Accordingly, we chose to take as our starting point the needs of citizens in Brussels rather than the subsidisation logic adopted by the various authorities.

A second difficulty was determining the theme. The range of health and welfare services offered is very broad. The budget available and the desire to obtain results in the short term forced us to limit the scope covered considerably. Identifying a centre of interest common to all the authorities concerned led us to select the theme “maintaining elderly people in their own home”.

The CDCS-CMDC prepared and conducted a survey among all the services which meet, in one way or another, the needs of elderly people living in their own home. The university teams which had collaborated on the “Health and Social Atlas” were requested to analyse and map the problem of elderly people living at home on the basis of the socio-economic survey data and the IGEAT team collaborated in mapping the results of the survey carried out by the CDCS-CMDC.

The Observatory was responsible for overall project co-ordination and comparing the information concerning supply and demand and seeking additional data to answer this question, so as to be able to publish the information as a whole in “Living at home after the age of 65. Atlas of the needs and stakeholders in Brussels”.

(7) Brussels-Capital Health and Social Atlas (2005-2006)

The general socio-economic survey (before the census) is a very important source of data for poverty indicators and health determinants. This survey offers numerous possibilities because the whole of the population on the national register was interviewed on many aspects of life (housing, work, level of education, health, etc.). Such data are only available every 10 years and there is no guarantee that such a collection of detailed data will be produced in the future.

That is why the Health and Social Observatory decided to launch a project to analyse the 2001 survey data as soon as they became available. The objective was to make the greatest possible use of the pertinent data contained in the survey in combination with health- and welfare-related data to make available to a wider audience information up to the level of statistical areas, in collaboration with university teams experienced in processing such data. Three teams of researchers - Interface Demography VUB, Institut de Gestion de l'Environnement et d'Aménagement du Territoire of ULB and Instituut voor Sociale en Economische Geografie KULeuven - worked together to analyse, map and interpret this mine of information. The Observatory co-ordinated the work of the teams of researchers and aspects such as the translation of the various contributions, the harmonisation of the overall project and ensuring the publication of a document as widely accessible as possible.

(8) Comparison between the 2001 health survey and the 2001 socio-economic survey

Every four years, a national health survey is conducted in Brussels by the Institute of Public Health through interviews. This survey is financed jointly by the Federal, Regional and Community authorities. As regards Brussels, the survey in question is financed by the Health and Social Observatory's budget. It represents a significant, recurring expense. It was therefore worthwhile examining the usefulness of the information gathered via this survey as regards its representativeness, validity and relevance as a decision-making aid in Brussels.

The second national health survey was conducted in 2001, the same year as the general socio-economic survey. The two surveys included a series of identical indicators, in particular the questions concerning subjective health and the socio-demographic indicators. These overlapping questions provided an opportunity to compare the results obtained via the health survey with a sample of those obtained via the general socio-demographic survey, which is exhaustive.

This research was entrusted to the SESA - UCL's socio-economics of health unit. It was financed by the Observatory ("operating costs" 2003 budget)

(9) Background factors and volunteer aid in Brussels

The general objective of this research was to analyse certain factors of subjective health and the provision of volunteer aid in Brussels using two databases: the national health survey and the general socio-economic survey, both carried out in 2001.

The first part of the research concerned subjective health. Do background factors (linked to the district where the respondent lives) influence the subjective health of inhabitants of Brussels? Can the impact of background factors on health be assessed by examining the national health survey?

A second part was devoted to studying the provision of unofficial care services by inhabitants of Brussels: does this vary according to the type of district where the respondent lives?

This research was carried out by the SESA - UCL's socio-economics of health unit. It was financed by the Observatory (“operating costs" 2004 budget).

(10) Development of a Perinatal Epidemiology Centre for Brussels and the French Community

In response to the needs expressed by professionals, gynaecologists and paediatricians and the growing demand for epidemiologic data concerning the period around birth at regional, national and international levels, a project for the creation of a perinatal epidemiology centre for Brussels and the French Community, along the lines of the not-for-profit association Studie centrum voor perinatale epidemiologie (SPE) which exists in Flanders for many years, has been gradually developed.

The Health and Social Observatory has contributed to the implementation of the project. Its contribution consisted in supporting discussions on data flows and optimising the structuring of a database.