B. Legetic et al., HEALTH-CARE-DELIVERY AND THE STATUS OF THE POPULATIONS HEALTH IN THE CURRENT CRISES IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA USING EPI-DESIGN METHODOLOGY, International journal of epidemiology, 25(2), 1996, pp. 341-348
Background. The aim of this study was to assess accessibility to healt
h care services and the needs of the population and demands on the hea
lth service in the areas most affected by the current crisis in the fo
rmer Yugoslavia. The delivery of health care services and problems in
its realization and the status of the population's health in the crisi
s period (from the second half of 1993 to the end of the first half of
1994) were also investigated together with the results of Government
measures concerning health care priorities during the period of UN San
ctions in Yugoslavia. Method. By the end of the 1980s, as an alternati
ve to traditional data collection, a new method called 'Rapid Health A
ssessment' appeared. The EPI design (Expanded Programme on Immunizatio
n), the most frequently applied method, was used in this study. It is
a cluster sample selection, where a household is the basic unit. Resul
ts. This study showed that the first effects of the crisis appeared in
the field of health care delivery and then in the population's health
status. The difficulties were not the same for all categories of the
population, and children and urgent cases had less problems than other
s. The expected difficulties in vaccination coverage were not shown in
this survey. The morbidity structure for children and adults changed
in comparison with routine statistical data but the size of the chosen
sample, as well as the short period of the crisis investigated, mean
that definite conclusions cannot be drawn on this issue. This study pr
ovides recent data on health care delivery, morbidity structure, and v
accination coverage, as well as giving a more complex and precise esti
mate of the real situation.