Information Support for New Public Health Action at District Level

Considers the new information needs created by the growing trend to decentralize health care and give greater responsibility to health districts serving local populations. Noting that district health staff and management teams often lack essential demographic and epidemiological data, the report aims to identify the types of information that would provide the greatest support to the processes of planning, priority setting, resource allocation, and evaluation. An effort is also made to determine how this information can be gathered, processed, analysed, and put to good use, particularly in situations where public expectations for health care are rising as resources diminish. Throughout the report, emphasis is placed on new public health priorities that call for improved monitoring of equity in health status, quality of health care, and coverage and efficiency of district health services. Main sections in the report describe weaknesses in currently available information, explain why locally-relevant data are so scarce, and outline general categories of information needed at district level. Other sections describe the range of methods that can be used to collect and process information, and offer advice on the analysis, presentation and reporting of health information.