Review

. 2021 Jul;2(7):e436-e443.

doi: 10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00115-X.

A call for standardised age-disaggregated health data

Theresa Diaz¹, Kathleen L Strong¹, Bochen Cao², Regina Guthold¹, Allisyn C Moran¹, Ann-Beth Moller³, Jennifer Requejo⁴, Ritu Sadana¹, Jotheeswaran Amuthavalli Thiyagarajan¹, Emmanuel Adebayo⁵, Elsie Akwara³, Agbessi Amouzou⁶, John J Aponte Varon⁷, Peter S Azzopardi^{8

9

10

11}, Cynthia Boschi-Pinto¹², Liliana Carvajal⁴, Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli³, Sarah Crofts¹³, Saeed Dastgiri¹⁴, Jeremiah S Dery¹⁵, Shatha Elnakib³, Laura Fagan¹⁶, B Jane Ferguson¹⁷, Julia Fitzner¹⁸, Howard S Friedman¹⁹, Ann Hagell²⁰, Eduard Jongstra¹⁹, Laura Kann²¹, Somnath Chatterji², Mike English²², Philippe Glaziou²³, Claudia Hanson²⁴, Ahmad R Hosseinpoor², Andrew Marsh¹, Alison P Morgan^{25

26}, Melinda K Munos⁶, Abdisalan Noor⁷, Boris I Pavlin²⁷, Rich Pereira¹³, Tyler A Porth⁴, Joanna Schellenberg²⁸, Rizwana Siddique²⁹, Danzhen You⁴, Lara M E Vaz³⁰, Anshu Banerjee¹

Affiliations

¹ Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, and Ageing Department, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
² Data and Analytics Department, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
³ UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction, Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁴ Division of Data, Analysis, Planning and Monitoring, UNICEF, New York, NY, USA.
⁵ Adolescent Health Unit, Institute of Child Health, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
⁶ Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁷ Global Malaria Programme, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁸ Global Adolescent Health Group, Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Program, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁹ Adolescent Health and Wellbeing Program, Wardliparingga Aboriginal Health Equity Theme, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
¹⁰ Department of Pediatrics, VIC, Australia.
¹¹ University of Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
¹² Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Fluminense Federal University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
¹³ Office for National Statistics, London, UK.
¹⁴ Tabriz Health Services Management Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
¹⁵ Ghana Statistical Service, Cape Coast, Ghana.
¹⁶ UN Major Group for Children and Youth, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁷ Tannay, Switzerland.
¹⁸ Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness Department, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹⁹ UN Population Fund, New York, NY, USA.
²⁰ Association for Young People's Health, London, UK.
²¹ Princeton, IL, USA.
²² KEMRI-Wellcome Trust, Nairobi, Kenya.
²³ Department of Global Tuberculosis, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
²⁴ Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
²⁵ Nossal Institute for Global Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, VIC, Australia.
²⁶ Global Financing Facility, World Bank, Washington, DC, USA.
²⁷ Health Emergency Information and Risk Assessment Department, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
²⁸ London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
²⁹ Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Islamabad, Pakistan.
³⁰ Population Reference Bureau, Washington, DC, USA.

PMID: 34240065
PMCID: PMC8245325
DOI: 10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00115-X

Review

A call for standardised age-disaggregated health data

Theresa Diaz et al. Lancet Healthy Longev. 2021 Jul.

. 2021 Jul;2(7):e436-e443.

doi: 10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00115-X.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, and Ageing Department, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
² Data and Analytics Department, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
³ UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction, Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁴ Division of Data, Analysis, Planning and Monitoring, UNICEF, New York, NY, USA.
⁵ Adolescent Health Unit, Institute of Child Health, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
⁶ Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁷ Global Malaria Programme, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁸ Global Adolescent Health Group, Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Program, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁹ Adolescent Health and Wellbeing Program, Wardliparingga Aboriginal Health Equity Theme, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
¹⁰ Department of Pediatrics, VIC, Australia.
¹¹ University of Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
¹² Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Fluminense Federal University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
¹³ Office for National Statistics, London, UK.
¹⁴ Tabriz Health Services Management Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
¹⁵ Ghana Statistical Service, Cape Coast, Ghana.
¹⁶ UN Major Group for Children and Youth, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁷ Tannay, Switzerland.
¹⁸ Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness Department, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹⁹ UN Population Fund, New York, NY, USA.
²⁰ Association for Young People's Health, London, UK.
²¹ Princeton, IL, USA.
²² KEMRI-Wellcome Trust, Nairobi, Kenya.
²³ Department of Global Tuberculosis, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
²⁴ Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
²⁵ Nossal Institute for Global Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, VIC, Australia.
²⁶ Global Financing Facility, World Bank, Washington, DC, USA.
²⁷ Health Emergency Information and Risk Assessment Department, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
²⁸ London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
²⁹ Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Islamabad, Pakistan.
³⁰ Population Reference Bureau, Washington, DC, USA.

PMID: 34240065
PMCID: PMC8245325
DOI: 10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00115-X

Erratum in

Correction to Lancet Healthy Longev 2021; 2: e436-43.
[No authors listed] [No authors listed] Lancet Healthy Longev. 2021 Aug;2(8):e458. doi: 10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00171-9. Lancet Healthy Longev. 2021. PMID: 34405202 Free PMC article.

Abstract

The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda calls for health data to be disaggregated by age. However, age groupings used to record and report health data vary greatly, hindering the harmonisation, comparability, and usefulness of these data, within and across countries. This variability has become especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was an urgent need for rapid cross-country analyses of epidemiological patterns by age to direct public health action, but such analyses were limited by the lack of standard age categories. In this Personal View, we propose a recommended set of age groupings to address this issue. These groupings are informed by age-specific patterns of morbidity, mortality, and health risks, and by opportunities for prevention and disease intervention. We recommend age groupings of 5 years for all health data, except for those younger than 5 years, during which time there are rapid biological and physiological changes that justify a finer disaggregation. Although the focus of this Personal View is on the standardisation of the analysis and display of age groups, we also outline the challenges faced in collecting data on exact age, especially for health facilities and surveillance data. The proposed age disaggregation should facilitate targeted, age-specific policies and actions for health care and disease management.

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Conflict of interest statement

We declare no competing interests.

Figures

**Figure 1**
Deaths by recommended standardised age groups in 2019

**Figure 2**
Years lived with disability by recommended standardised age groups in 2019 Uncorrected refractive errors most commonly include myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism and presbyopia, which have not been treated with corrective glasses, contact lenses, or refractive surgery.

**Figure 3**
Age-specific death and years lived with disability rates per 1000 people by recommended standardised age groups in 2019

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

1. UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development. SGD Indicators Metadata repository. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/?Text=&Goal=17&Target=17.18
1. WHO Handbook on health inequality monitoring with a special focus on low- and middle-income countries. 2013. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/gho-documents/health-equity/hand...
1. Patton GC, Sawyer SM, Santelli JS. Our future: a Lancet commission on adolescent health and wellbeing. Lancet. 2016;387:2423–2478. - PMC - PubMed
1. UN General Assembly . United Nations General Assembly seventy-fifth session. United Nations; New York, NY: 2020. Agenda item 131: global health and foreign policy. United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030)https://undocs.org/en/A/75/L.47
1. Titchfield City Group on Ageing Report of the 2nd Technical Meeting of the Titchfield City Group on ageing and age-disaggregated data. June, 2019. https://gss.civilservice.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Report-of-the...

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A call for standardised age-disaggregated health data

Affiliations

A call for standardised age-disaggregated health data

Authors

Affiliations

Erratum in

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Medical

Miscellaneous