Research and quality control in natural family planning with relational database systems

Research and quality control in natural family planning (NFP) is based on c ontinuous data collection in prospective studies. The quality of the data i s determined by the reliability of collection, input, management, and retri eval. During a period of ten years, different relational databases were pro grammed to manage the large number of very different data in NFP studies. R ecently, all experience with different database systems has been summarized by writing and testing a completely new data management system based on MS Access 97: NFPDAT 1.0. This new software is used for data collection, eval uation and administration in NFP Study Groups. Over 200 internal formulae g uarantee maximum data consistency while 30 000 cycles from 1477 patients we re stored. Easy data evaluation for research and administration is possible with the help of a new report generator even without prior knowledge of SQ L (System Query Language) or Visual Basic for MS Access 97. Using this meth od, interim results for research and quality control can be obtained at any time. NFPDAT can be used by all Natural Family Planning Study Groups using the symptothermal method for research and administration. With the help of NFPDAT, various prospective studies of Natural Family Planning were conduc ted.