Evaluating Slovenia’s policy on the health of children and adolescents: results of an audit / 29.07.2020

"We have found that due to poor intersectoral coordination and weak associations between available environmental and health indicators, no clear evidence could be established that the child and adolescent policy contributed to positive changes in child and adolescent health from 2012 to 2019."

The publication, authored by Tine Bizjak, Rok Novak, Marko Vudrag, Andreja Kukec and Branko Kontić aims to demonstrate the contribution of the auditing process in evaluating the success of the Slovenian child and adolescent health strategy between 2012 and 2019 and demonstrates the benefits of auditing in improving public health policy in general. We have found that due to poor intersectoral coordination and weak associations between available environmental and health indicators (see Figure), no clear evidence could be established that the child and adolescent policy contributed to positive changes in child and adolescent health from 2012 to 2019. Our proposals for future work and improvements:

-          monitoring of policy implementation and its results is crucial, metrics should be defined in detail along with policy,

-          environmental health indicators need to be fit for their intended purpose,

-          effective intersectoral work is needed (e.g. a permanent body comprising involved sectors) and is crucial for successful public health interventions,

-          properly planned and systematically performed audits should be an integral part of monitoring any policy implementation; regular re-auditing is vital to ensure that the midcourse corrections made have improved the situation,

-          current and forthcoming issues affecting the health of young people should not be overlooked.

Link to the publication: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00038-020-01432-0