SEARCH · PubMed Health
Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Between 1969 and 1975, the U.S. family planning program helped its patients avert 1.1 million unwanted and mistimed births. These averted births resulted in short-term savings to the government for health and social welfare services of $1.1 billion, compared to a federal investment in family planning of $584 million--a benefit/cost ratio of $1.80 for every federal dollar invested.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
A new, relatively "quick and clean" operations research approach called a "situation analysis" was developed for examining the strengths and weaknesses of the family planning program of Kenya. Field research teams visited a stratified random sample of 99 of the Ministry of Health's approximately 775 service delivery points. Observation techniques and interviewing were used to collect information on program components and on the quality of care provided to new family planning clients during the observation day. As late as 1986, the Kenya program was rated "weak" and "poor" in the international literature. The Kenya Situation Analysis Study found a functioning, integrated maternal and child health/family planning program serving large numbers of clients, with an emphasis on oral contraceptives and Depo-Provera (and an underemphasis on permanent methods). Although a number of program problems were revealed by the study, overall, in terms of performance, a rating of "moderate" is suggested as more appropriate for Kenya's national family planning program today. In terms of the quality of care, a "moderate to moderate-high" rating is suggested.
Nearly all West Indian islands initiated marked fertility declines sometime between 1960 and 1970. Family planning programs have not played an important role in these declines. Neither have other variables that conventional social theory tells us should promote reduced family sizes, like education and rising standards of living. The historical experience of Barbados and Antigua, which reached replacement-level fertility in the 1980s, suggests that West Indian fertility declines reflect structural changes in national economies that created job opportunities for women. Family planning programs need to be evaluated with reference to the distinctive health and human rights goals other than fertility transition that they can effectively reach.
According to a set of 30 indices that assess the strength of large-scale family planning programs in developing countries, a strong upward shift in effort scores occurred between 1982 and 1989. During that period, many countries established or augmented their family planning programs, and effort scores improved in all developing regions and in all four dimensions of effort--policies and stage-setting activities, service and service-related activities, record keeping and evaluation, and availability of contraceptive methods. By region, the sharpest improvement was not in East Asia, where levels were already high, but in sub-Saharan Africa, where the movement was clearly upward, from a low base. Earlier associations between program effort and fertility declines are reaffirmed, additive to the contribution of socioeconomic improvements. In order to compute scores ranging from zero to 30 for each of the 30 indices, a detailed questionnaire was sent to 4-6 respondents in each of 103 developing countries having more than one million population. Respondents included program staff, donor agency personnel, local observers, and knowledgeable foreigners. The scores indicate that developing countries are continuing to move toward more favorable policy positions and stronger implementation of action programs, with consequent fertility effects. For the fertility decline to match the medium population projections of the United Nations, however, a substantial enlargement in the number of contraceptive users is necessary, not only to compensate for the enlarging base of couples, but also to increase the proportion who use contraceptives.
The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program has included several questions on sexual intercourse in its model questionnaires that have been used in more than 25 surveys in Latin America, Africa, and Asia over the last five years. This article assesses the quality of the data on sexual intercourse for 12 DHS surveys and shows how these data may be useful for understanding contraceptive use dynamics and for organizing the management of family planning programs. The data show that there is considerable variation among countries in exposure to pregnancy prior to first marriage. Within marriage, the level of coital frequency varies with duration of marriage, fertility intentions, and type of contraceptive method used. Finally, in all countries there is some overlap between contraceptive use and sexual abstinence. This information can be useful in family planning programs for targeting particular populations, for assisting women to choose a method, and for assessing the effect of contraceptive use on fertility.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
This article proposes an integrated in-house evaluation model for family planning programs. The model is designed to meet the need of program management for an operational and internal evaluation system suited to the ongoing character of program activities and focused on the feedback of information for program planning. The ideas presented are applied to the context of the Albany County Family Planning Service, Inc., Wyoming.
Under rigorous statistical controls, it has been shown that the larger the proportion of lower SES women enrolled in organized family planning programs, the lower their fertility. Program effects independent of other social, economic and cultural factors were shown for lower SES whites and blacks, and for most age groups. The potential of a fully implemented program to reduce fertility differentials between upper and lower SES groups was assessed, using 1969-1970 fertility rates and the estimates of 1969 program impact. Although we believe that the program's impact has increased in magnitude over time, even these estimates from an early point in U.S. program development provide impressive documentation that the program reduces fertility in the subpopulation served by the program, and, by implication, that there is a genuine need for organized family planning services, even in an industrialized nation like the United States. If there were no need, there could be no program effect. The family planning program was one of the major new health and social programs introduced in the mid-1960s. This study shows that, far from failing, the program was succeeding very well in attaining its objectives. The program works because it gives women of lower socioeconomic status access to modern and effective methods of contraception that they would not otherwise have. As a result, the rates of unwanted and mistimed pregnancy of patients are lower than those of comparable women who lack access to organized clinic programs.
The training and utilization of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) in maternal and child health and family planning programs in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia are discussed. Special efforts to organize and train TBAs for family planning in Malaysia are examined in detail. Import factors for successful utilization of TBAs include: (a) definite assignment of functions and tasks, (b) organization of good operational steps and (c) implementation of good supervisory activities.
The results of a survey of 275 Bangladeshi women who were sterilized at a rural family planning clinic are presented. The survey comprised two interviews of each woman: one conducted immediately prior to the sterilization procedure and the second conducted one month after each woman was sterilized. Sociodemographic data were gathered for the survey from the patients' clinic records. Reasons for the choice of sterilization and sociodemographic impact of the procedure are discussed, as are implications of the results on other rural family planning programs.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Estimates of contraceptive prevalence for the period 1977-1983 are presented for 73 less developed countries. Socioeconomic conditions are associated with much of the variance in prevalence, but organized family planning programs strengthened this association significantly. The average percent of couples in the reproductive ages practicing fertility regulation is 26, with the range from 4 to 55 percent between the low and high socioeconomic groups of countries, and from 7 to 59 percent between groups of countries with very weak (if any) to strong family planning program effort.
A meeting of an expert group was held on 7-12 August 1972 in Bangkok, Thailand, to discuss existing patterns of relationships between governments in Asian countries implementing national family planning programs and the private national family planning associations. The concept of a suitable working relationship and division of labor was explored. It was felt that a nationwide program can best be administered under government leadership but that voluntary organizations should be involved to the maximum extent possible. The need for communication and coordination at all levels of planning and operation was stressed.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Indonesian family planning (FP) service statistics indicate that three out of five couples of childbearing age nationwide are now using modern contraception provided by the FP program. The 1980 Indonesian Census provided a unique opportunity to cross-check the FP program's contraceptive prevalence figures for every province. The results of that comparison indicate considerable variation, particularly in Java, between the FP program estimates of numbers of current users and the census estimates. Possible explanations for these differences are sought in the FP program approach to estimation of prevalence levels from acceptor data, and by examining the possibility of census underestimation of prevalence levels.