ABBREV IA TIO NS The abbreviations used in this report include the following: AMDE - Association of Medical Deans in Europe AMEE - Association for Medical Education in Europe ASPHER - Association of Schools of Public Health of the European Region CE - Council of Europe CEC - Commission of the European Com- munities CMEA - Council for Mutual Economic Assistance DANIDA - Danish International Development Agency EACMR - European Advisory Committee for Medi- ECE EEC cal Research - Economic Commission for Europe - European Economic Community FAO IFLA ILO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - International Federation of Library As sociations and Institutions - International Labour Organisation (Of fice) OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development UICC - International Union against Cancer UNDP - United Nations Development Programme UNEP - United Nations Environment Programme UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNFPA - United Nations Fund for Population Activities UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund ISBN 92 890 1013 4 © World Health Organization 1983 Publications of the WHO Regional Office for Europe enjoy copyright protection in accordance with the provisions of Protocol 2 of the Universal Copyright Convention. For rights of reproduction or translation, in part or in toto, of this publication application should be made to the WHO Regional Office for Europe, Scherfigsvej 8, DK-2100 Copenhagen</), Denmark. The Regional Office welcomes such applications. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the World Health Organiz ation concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or con cerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Where the designation "country or area" appears in the heading of tables, it covers countries, territories, cities or areas. The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers' products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the World Health Organization in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. Errors and omissions excepted, the names of proprietary products are distinguished by initial capital letters. PRINTED IN DENMARK EUR/RC33/2 ISSN 1014-4323 (print)
to several Regional Office programmes, and studies are being made to extend this facility to field projects and institutions in countries where such services are not available. An appreciable reduction of the library collections was carried out to make it easier for library users to find books relevant to current Regional Office programmes. HEALTH STATISTICS The Third Joint ECE/WHO Meeting on Health Statistics was held in Geneva in February and was attended by repre sentatives of l � countries. The partici pants discussed adapting the International Classification of Impairments, Disabil ities, and Handicaps for use in household surveys, and made recommendations for further joint research in this field. The meeting also reviewed developments in the field of social indicators· for health, linkage between institution-based and population-based data, and the problem of health accounts. It was recommended that the question of national health in formation systems be included in future joint activities. The recommendations of the meeting were endorsed by the Confer ence of European Statisticians in Geneva in June. The study on the health and social implications of trends in the demographic structure of the European Region, sup ported by UNFPA, came to an end with a meeting of advisers and country repre sentatives in Berne in March. The general recommendations called for better use of population projections by policy-makers, with more attention being paid to the qualitative aspects of changes in demo graphic structure. It was stressed that the 82 relative reduction expected in the num bers of younger people did not mean that their health and social problems would be less important. The size of the adult popu lation will not change too much in the next two decades but there will be a change in structure, with a higher pro portion of older adults, and the increas ing divorce rates will lead to more people living alone. This situation will have to be considered when planning the provision of health and social services. Most im portant, however, is the fact that Euro pean societies must prepare themselves to face and handle the challenge presented by the aging of their populations, and especially the rapid increase in the num bers of the very old. The meeting rec ommended action to provide meaningful social roles for the elderly, flexible retire ment policies, prevention of social iso lation, strengthening of primary care ser vices, and the education of health per sonnel, the general public and the elderly themselves. The activities related to estimating the future health situation in Europe were implemented as planned, and two work ing groups were convened in Copenhagen in May and December. The first dealt with projections of mortality, morbidity and disability, and the second was de voted to projections of health resources and their utilization. Both meetings re viewed existing methods and examples of current applications, and made recom mendations for further development and testing of the methods in collabor'ation with national centres. The outcome will be presented to a meeting of experts and policy-makers to be organized in 1983. In collaboration with the information systems programme an information base was set up, including a series of indicators
Tunisia, 44, 80 Turkey,2,4,5, 19,21,24,27,30,33,40,44,45,46, 66,68 UNDP, see United Nations Development Programme Unemployment, 7, 15, 18 UNEP, see United Nations Environment Programme UNFPA, see United Nations Fund for Population Activities UNICEF, see United Nations Children's Fund Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 4, 5, 6, 19, 22, 23,29,30, 33,47,49, 73, 77 United Kingdom, 5, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 32, 34, 36, 54,60,64,66, 72, 73, 77, 79,80,92 United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 9 United Nations Decade for Women, 34 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 9, 25, 31, 36, 44, 58, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68,92 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), 9, 16, 19, 59, 62, 82 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 31, 87 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 9, 57, 61, 63 126 United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), 10, 31, 32, 82, 83 United Nations Organization, 87, 91 United Nations World Assembly on Aging, see under Elderly United States, 18, 27, 29, 30, 34, 35, 53, 62 Virus diseases, see Bacterial and virus diseases Voluntary contributions, 94 Waste discharge into the marine environment, 61 Waste management, 57, 63, 66, 67, 68 Water quality and pollution control, 9, 57, 58, 60-62,68Water resources, 65, 66, 67 WHO headquarters, 5, 18, 32, 38, 39, 44, 51, 87 Women and health, 22, 34 Workers' health, see Occupational health World Association for Medical Law, 88 World Congress of Cardiology, 50 World Health Assembly, 1, 2, 91 World Health Day, 15, 24, 89 World Federation for Mental Health, 36 Yugoslavia, 3, 7, 19, 27, 47, 66, 69