The ADR Wales Health and Wellbeing and Social Justice teams have collaborated to develop a population-wide, all-nations model of desirable health.
This work flips the traditional focus on negative health outcomes and life events, instead examining the positive indicators that, when combined, suggest good health. The model was created to address the challenges of measuring health and wellbeing directly – particularly in a way that is replicable across nations and resonates with both the public and policymakers.
The result is the Desirable Health Indicator (DHI), an annual, reproducible measure that calculates the proportion of the population who survive and do not use healthcare services. The DHI was inspired by the concept of New Year’s wishes for survival and the absence of undesirable events over the coming year in Wales. Events such as not being admitted to hospital, not attending an emergency department, and not needing to be prescribed medications for infection, mental health conditions, or pain were all classified as desirable outcomes.
The DHI has now been implemented in SAIL Databank and is being used in ongoing ADR Wales Health and Wellbeing projects.