Health System Employees
This indicator is a determinant of well-being26 and could be considered a fundamental
element for the improvement of general health conditions. It refers to the overall number of
medical and paramedical employees of public and private health system in Italian regions, year
1998 (source: Annuario Statistico Regionale Lombardia (ASRL), table 24.04.02.0327).
The related conversion factors are the following.
• Health conditions (belonging to family I personal heterogeneities - see 2.3) :
percentage of people in good health, year 1999 (source: elaboration from ASRL, table
31.04.07). This indicator favors the conversion of the commodity into PPH, thus it is
a multiplier (see 2.2, table 1) of Health System Employees.
• Medical treatments (family I): people undergoing medical treatments (source: Istat
Indagine Multiscopo 1997, Vita Quotidiana, table 5.2). Favoring the conversion, it is
a multiplier of Health System Employees.
• Sports (family I): people practicing recreational sport activities (source: Istat
Indagine Multiscopo 1997, Vita Quotidiana, table 9.2). It is a favorable conversion
factor and so a multiplier of the commodity of health.
• Elderly (family I): population over 65 years, year 2000 (source: Istat, Demo:
popolazione e statistiche demografiche28). The older the population, the more illness
and disability are widespread: thus this indicator is not favorable to the conversion of
the commodity into PPH and is a divisor of the commodity itself.
• Smokers (family I): people older then 14 smoking, year 1997 (source: Istat Indagine
Multiscopo 1997, Vita Quotidiana, table 3.2). This indicator is an unfavorable
conversion factor, thus the commodity is divided by it.
Table 2 - Conversion factors for Health System Employees
Favorable Non favorable
Health conditions Elderly
Medical treatments Smokers
Sports n.a.
The “converted contribution” of Health System Employees to the functioning PPH is then:
Health System Employees * Health conditions * Medical treatments * Sports /
Elderly / Smokers (4)
Environmental Quality
The commodity representing the state of the environment is Environmental Quality, and the
relative indicator is the percentage of people perceiving good environmental quality, year 1999
(source: elaboration from Istat Sistema Sanitario e Salute della Popolazione, table 6.129). The
stream of services arising from the improvement of the state of the environment are relevant to
human health.
The conversion factors of Environmental Quality are the following.
26 All the indicators proxy of commodities must be determinants of well- being, as stated in section 2.3.
27 All the data of the Annuario Statistico Regionale Lombardia are downloadable from the internet:
www.ring.lombardia.it
28 Internet: http://demo.istat.it/
29 The family of statistics Sistema Sanitario e Salute della Popolazione can be found on the Internet:
http://www.istat.it/Primpag/sociosan2001/index.html
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