Adolescent and Adult Perspectives on European Health System Performance: A Four- Country Study

Background: Population trust in health systems is crucial both during public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and during normal times, as it influences people’s willingness to contribute resources to the health system, to utilize the services it offers, and to follow public health guidance. However, people´s perceptions of health systems and their experiences of care are currently not captured systematically in any national or international data system. Data is particularly scarce on the perspectives of highneeds groups, including adolescents, migrants, and gender and sexual minorities, that historically
have been underserved by health systems. Understanding people’s perspectives on health system performance is critical for creating higherquality, more equitable, and more people-centred health systems for the future.
Objectives: We aim to use a new study tool developed by an international team of researchers led by the Harvard School of Public Health to measure health system performance from the population perspective in four target countries: Latvia, the Netherlands, Scotland and Switzerland. The People’s Voice Survey (PVS) is designed to measure health system quality (e.g., care pathways, experiences of care, and trust and confidence in
the health system) in a systematic and comparable way, using nationally representative samples.