RAPID SURVEYS IN SUPPORT OF DISTRICT HEALTH INFORMATION-SYSTEM - AN EXPERIENCE FROM UGANDA

The role of rapid health assessment in generating data other than rout ine reporting for a multi-element primary health care information syst em is presented. Rapid surveys, based on the adaptation of the WHO/EPI cluster survey methodology, may generate reliable and valid results u seful for the support of a managerial PHC information system. However, because of the limitations inherent to the method, so far, only few s tudies have investigated more than few PHC related issues. The experie nce of a household rapid survey conducted in Arua District, Uganda, us ing a modified EPI cluster survey methodology, is reported. Rapid appr aisal methods were used to prioritize the information requirement and to identify the survey items. Fully supervised teams of primary school teachers were used as interviewers. Data processing, check and analys is were speeded up by a lap-top computer, in spite of problems of erra tic power. Within a 10-day time span between the start of the survey a nd the publishing of results, data on health services' utilization, he alth seeking behaviour, coverage of PHC services, including immunizati on, and anthropometric data on the nutritional status of under-five ch ildren were obtained. Standard errors and 95% confidence intervals wer e calculated taking into account the variability of the parameters und er investigation and true design effects were computed. The findings w ere utilized for the identification of health priorities and the monit oring of effectiveness of programmes, as well as to validate routine r eporting. The methodological package was built up looking at the local context, so that it could become an operational tool for the district health management team.