Inventarisatie van de bruikbaarheid vangegevensbronnen

Investment to ensure the continuity of data sources is essential for maintaining usable information on indicators in the prevention arena. This was concluded from a study on 138 indicators, carried out by the Centre for Public Health Forecasting at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) on commission of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. The aim of the study was to examine whether data sources would provide usable information on the indicators that the Ministry will use for their products as policy documents. In the study, information from data sources was evaluated using three criteria: representativeness, validity and continuity. Depending on the extent to which the information from the data source satisfied the criteria, conclusions could be drawn on whether the data source gives usable or unusable information on the indicator. For about two-thirds of the 138 indicators, data sources were found to provide usable information about the indicators. Problems of continuity pose the most common threat to usability of the information: the information might come from a onetime source, or the continuation of the data source is not guaranteed or the information is not consistently measured over time. Investment by the Ministry would seem to be necessary to ensure usable information on the indicators.