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The present report provides an overview of the development, content, evaluation, and outcomes of the ‘Public Health Foresight Studies’ Training course, also referred to as the ‘Foresight Capacity Building’ training course or the ‘course’. The Foresight Capacity Building course aims at leveling capacity in Public Health Foresight Studies from PHIRI’s participating Member States (MS). Building foresight capacity through this training course is the main output of Task 9.2 of Work Package 9 (WP9) of the PHIRI project. This course was shaped taking into account the foresight capacity needs of MS as reported in the survey carried out in the first quarter of 2021 (during Task 9.1). The course prepares professionals of MS to carry out their own foresight study with the support of WP9 team and from each other. The Foresight Capacity Building course followed a didactive approach consisting of theory on the concepts covered, practical examples, and practical exercises. In addition to the foresight project team of lectures, guest lecturers contributed to specific topics. The course consisted of 5 modules: a general module, followed by three advanced modules deepening on several foresight elements, and a final module revisiting the concepts learned throughout the course and introducing participants to the next task: developing scenarios. Throughout the course, participants gave their feedback through evaluation forms. Where possible, we used this feedback to better address participant’s expectations and improve the course along the way. Overall, the course was well appreciated by participants. However, we also encountered some challenges. These mostly related to issues of time in an era of high work load: difficulty finding lecturers, the small time window for preparing the course, and a gap between registration and actual participation. Also, fitting enough opportunity for small-group-discussion into each session was a challenge. More than 70 participants from 21 MS attended (at least one module of) the course. Videos of the course are available on the PHIRI website. Participants that were not able to attend the full course were recommended to watch the videos. To stay in touch, they were encouraged to join the LinkedIn group created during the course to interact with other professionals and experts. The course (Task 9.2), allowed those not familiar with public health foresight to develop a basic level of foresight capacity and those with preexisting experience to deepen their knowledge. The course participants are ready to plan and conduct their own Public Health Foresight Study in the next phase of our PHIRI work (Task 9.3). All professionals interested in public health foresight studies are invited to check out the course and join us. It will also be made available on the European Health Information Portal, as part of the ‘European School on Health Information’.

Additional file 7. It is a doc. Word file and describes examples of health determinants identified using linked data across European countries in 2019.

Additional file 3. It is a doc. Word file and include a table describing the names of survey respondents, their institutes and email addresses.

Additional file 4. It is a doc. Word file and describes different data sources used for linkage across European countries in 2019.

Additional file 8. It is a doc. Word file and describes examples of health intervention indicators estimated using linked data across European countries in 2019.

Additional file 1. It is a doc. Word file. It describes the search strategies used to identify citations related to data linkage and machine learning technique used for health status monitoring.

Additional file 6. It is a doc. Word file and describes examples of health outcome indicators estimated using linked data across European countries in 2019.

Additional file 5. It is a doc word file and describes examples of different combinations of data linkage across European countries in 2019.

Preterm birth (PTB), defined as birth before 37 weeks, is a leading cause of infant mortality and morbidity. Compared to term infants, preterm infants face important risks of motor and cognitive impairments throughout childhood, as well as chronic diseases and premature death later in life. PTB represents a significant public health burden and in Europe, rates range between 5 and 10%. Such wide differences suggest that reductions may be possible, but there are few effective interventions, and these tend to target selected groups of high-risk pregnancies, based on clinical risk factors. Our aim for this thesis was to better appraise sources of population-level PTB rate variations and trends. First, we conducted an exhaustive review of the literature and found that maternal characteristics, reproductive policies, medical practices and methods of gestational age (GA) estimation affected PTB rates, but could not explain observed differences across countries. Next, using population-based data on pregnant women, newborns and stillbirths in 34 high-income countries from 1996 to 2010, we showed that: 1) reporting criteria for births and deaths affected PTB rates at early gestations and PTB rankings, but differences between countries with high and low rates are not just due to artefact 2) PTB trends were associated with broader shifts in countries’ gestational age GA distribution of births, and 3) using data from a representative sample of births in France in 2010, that there were shared maternal prenatal and socio-demographic risk factors for deliveries that did not reach full term, at 39 weeks GA. Our work confirms that recording differences in high-income countries have a limited impact on PTB rate variations. However, a broader focus on earlier delivery, including early term birth at 37-38 weeks, could shed light on the determinants of low PTB rates and provide a useful public health prevention paradigm.; La prématurité, définie par une naissance avant 37 semaines d’aménorrhées (SA), est une cause majeur de mortalité et de morbidité infantile. Comparés aux enfants nés à terme, les prématurés font face à des risques importants de troubles moteurs et cognitifs durant l'enfance, ainsi que de maladies chroniques et décès prématurés à l’âge adulte. La prématurité constitue un enjeu important de santé publique et en Europe, les taux varient entre 5 et 10%. Notre objectif pour cette thèse était de mieux comprendre les sources d’hétérogénéité des taux à l’échelle des pays. Dans un premier temps, nous avons effectué une revue exhaustive de la littérature qui montre que les caractéristiques maternelles, les pratiques médicales, et les méthodes d'estimation de l'âge gestationnel ont un impact sur les taux de prématurité. Cependant, ces facteurs n'expliquent pas l’ampleur des différences observées entre les pays. Puis, en utilisant des données sur les femmes enceintes, les nouveau-nés et les mort-nés dans 34 pays à revenus élevés de 1996 à 2010, nous avons établi que: 1) les différences d'enregistrement des naissances dans les pays à revenus élevés ont un impact limité sur les taux, sauf pour les naissances à 22-23 SA, 2) les tendances de PTB dans les pays sont associées à des variations plus importantes dans la distribution des âges gestationnels 3) et enfin, en utilisant les données d'un échantillon représentatif des naissances en France en 2010, qu’il existe des facteurs de risques maternels prénatals et socio-démographiques communs aux naissances avant terme (

Background: While international variations in overall cesarean delivery rates are well documented, less information is available for clinical sub-groups. Cesarean data presented by subgroups can be used to evaluate uptake of cesarean reduction policies or to monitor delivery practices for high and low risk pregnancies based on new scientific evidence. We studied differences and patterns in cesarean delivery rates by multiplicity and gestational age in Europe and the United States.Methods: This study used routine aggregate data from 17 European countries and the United States on the number of singleton and multiple live births with cesarean versus vaginal delivery by week of gestation in 2008. Overall and gestation-specific cesarean delivery rates were analyzed. We computed rate differences to compare mode of delivery (cesarean vs vaginal birth) between selected gestational age groups and studied associations between rates in these subgroups namely: very preterm (26-31 weeks GA), moderate preterm (32-36 weeks GA), near term (37-38 weeks GA), term (39-41 weeks GA) and post-term (42+ weeks GA) births, using Spearman's rank tests.Results: High variations in cesarean rates for singletons and multiples were observed everywhere. Rates for singletons varied from 15% in The Netherlands and Slovenia, to over 30% in the US and Germany. In singletons, rates were highest for very preterm births and declined to a nadir at 40 weeks of gestation, ranging from 8.0% in Sweden and Norway, to 22.5% in the US. These patterns differed across countries; the average rate difference between very preterm and term births was 43 percentage points, but ranged from 14% to 61%. High variations in rate differences were also observed for near term versus term births. For multiples, rates declined by gestational age in some countries, whereas in others rates were similar across all weeks of gestation. Countries' overall cesarean rates were highly correlated with gestation-specific subgroup rates, except for very preterm births.Conclusions: Gestational age patterns in cesarean delivery were heterogeneous across countries; these differences highlight areas where consensus on best practices is lacking and could be used in developing strategies to reduce cesareans., peer-reviewed