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An aid to research into the economics of health and health care.

Browse Data Sets

Description of Variables

Glossary

This Compendium of Health Datasets for Economists (ICoHDE) provides the largest collection of English specific datasets available for researchers interested in the field of economics of health and health care. It is a repository that aids the detection of data resources and provides support for secondary use of quantitative and qualitative data in research, learning and teaching.

The types of datasets documented cover a large number of health and health care policy relevant areas, including:

  • Primary care activity and expenditure
  • Hospital activity and expenditure
  • Social care
  • Performance measurement
  • Health care labour force
  • Health care commissioning
  • Pharmaceutical prescribing
  • Expenditure on equipment and technology
  • Incomes and earnings
  • Complaints and litigation
  • Healthcare related prices and inflation indices.

The compendium contains datasets of 2 main types:

  • Those that are freely available via the web – links to the data are provided.
  • Those that are available subject to specific access conditions covering licence fees, ethics permissions etc; these access conditions are documented and contacts provided.

All datasets identified have been thematically organized and can be searched by economic, socio-economic, demographic and risk behaviour categorization, disease area, area of health system, whether the data is national or regional basis, unit of analysis, data types and access condition. It can also be searched according to date of fieldwork. The compendium also lists, where relevant, any identifier variables such as post code, electoral ward, SHA, or PCT, that could in principle be used to link that dataset to others.

The detailed content as well as broad nature of the datasets are documented. These include the following variables, which can also be used to search for specific areas of interest:

  • Data type/methods employed,
  • Geographical coverage,
  • Sample information,
  • Consistency over time,
  • Availability,
  • Conditions of access

Where available, a link is provided to published research that utilizes the dataset contained in the compendium.

Enquiries or any comments about the compendium can be sent to:

Email: herc@dph.ox.ac.uk