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Diaz T, Strong KL, Cao B, et al. A call for standardised age-disaggregated health data. Lancet Healthy Longev. 2021;2(7):e436-e443doi: 10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00115-X.
Diaz, T., Strong, K. L., Cao, B., Guthold, R., Moran, A. C., Moller, A. B., Requejo, J., Sadana, R., Thiyagarajan, J. A., Adebayo, E., Akwara, E., Amouzou, A., Aponte Varon, J. J., Azzopardi, P. S., Boschi-Pinto, C., Carvajal, L., Chandra-Mouli, V., Crofts, S., Dastgiri, S., Dery, J. S., Elnakib, S., Fagan, L., Jane Ferguson, B., Fitzner, J., Friedman, H. S., Hagell, A., Jongstra, E., Kann, L., Chatterji, S., English, M., Glaziou, P., Hanson, C., Hosseinpoor, A. R., Marsh, A., Morgan, A. P., Munos, M. K., Noor, A., Pavlin, B. I., Pereira, R., Porth, T. A., Schellenberg, J., Siddique, R., You, D., Vaz, L. M. E., & Banerjee, A. (2021). A call for standardised age-disaggregated health data. The Lancet. Healthy longevity, 2(7), e436-e443. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00115-X
Diaz, Theresa, et al. "A call for standardised age-disaggregated health data." The Lancet. Healthy longevity vol. 2,7 (2021): e436-e443. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00115-X
Diaz T, Strong KL, Cao B, Guthold R, Moran AC, Moller AB, Requejo J, Sadana R, Thiyagarajan JA, Adebayo E, Akwara E, Amouzou A, Aponte Varon JJ, Azzopardi PS, Boschi-Pinto C, Carvajal L, Chandra-Mouli V, Crofts S, Dastgiri S, Dery JS, Elnakib S, Fagan L, Jane Ferguson B, Fitzner J, Friedman HS, Hagell A, Jongstra E, Kann L, Chatterji S, English M, Glaziou P, Hanson C, Hosseinpoor AR, Marsh A, Morgan AP, Munos MK, Noor A, Pavlin BI, Pereira R, Porth TA, Schellenberg J, Siddique R, You D, Vaz LME, Banerjee A. A call for standardised age-disaggregated health data. Lancet Healthy Longev. 2021 Jul;2(7):e436-e443. doi: 10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00115-X. PMID: 34240065; PMCID: PMC8245325.
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Lancet Healthy Longev. 2021 Jul;2(7):e436-e443. doi: 10.1016/S2666-7568(21)00115-X.

A call for standardised age-disaggregated health data.

The Lancet. Healthy longevity

Theresa Diaz, Kathleen L Strong, Bochen Cao, Regina Guthold, Allisyn C Moran, Ann-Beth Moller, Jennifer Requejo, Ritu Sadana, Jotheeswaran Amuthavalli Thiyagarajan, Emmanuel Adebayo, Elsie Akwara, Agbessi Amouzou, John J Aponte Varon, Peter S Azzopardi, Cynthia Boschi-Pinto, Liliana Carvajal, Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli, Sarah Crofts, Saeed Dastgiri, Jeremiah S Dery, Shatha Elnakib, Laura Fagan, B Jane Ferguson, Julia Fitzner, Howard S Friedman, Ann Hagell, Eduard Jongstra, Laura Kann, Somnath Chatterji, Mike English, Philippe Glaziou, Claudia Hanson, Ahmad R Hosseinpoor, Andrew Marsh, Alison P Morgan, Melinda K Munos, Abdisalan Noor, Boris I Pavlin, Rich Pereira, Tyler A Porth, Joanna Schellenberg, Rizwana Siddique, Danzhen You, Lara M E Vaz, Anshu Banerjee

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

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.

© 2021 World Health Organization; licensee Elsevier. This is an Open Access article published under the CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO license.

Conflict of interest statement

We declare no competing interests.

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