Uses of Epidemiology in Health Program Planning and Evaluation
- 1. UNIVERSITY OF HARGEISA COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES FACULTY OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY BY. DR. ABDIRAHMAN ABDILIAHI MOHAMED
- 2. Uses of epidemiology in health program planning and evaluation
- 3. Outline Difference between planning and evaluation and how epidemiology helps each. Points to be considered in health planning - appropriateness - cost effective - community need based - mix of preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative and public health services.
- 4. What is or planning? Planning (also called forethought) is the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve a desired goal with the available resources. The planning process (1) identifies the goals or objectives to be achieved, (2) formulates strategies to achieve them, (3) arranges or creates the means required, and (4) implements, directs, and monitors all steps in their proper sequence.
- 5. …….. Planning has types Strategic planning - A systematic process of envisioning a desired future, and translating this vision into broadly defined goals or objectives and a sequence of steps to achieve them. Program planning – A plan of action aimed at accomplishing a clear objective, with details on what work is to be done, by whom, when, and what means or resources will be used. Operational planning - A type of work planning which analyses a strategic plan into operational periods
- 6. ………… Epidemiology helps planners to know what is the problem they are dealing with, which place the problem exists and what kind of people the problem effects, it also helps in analyzing the problem to know what is the causative agent and how to prevent it. By knowing all this, it is easy for planners to make the appropriate decisions.
- 7. What is evaluation ? Rigorous analysis of completed or ongoing activities to determine the effectiveness, and the efficiency of a program and to see if it achieved its objectives. Evaluation of completed activities is called ex-post evaluation, post-hoc evaluation, or summative evaluation. Evaluation of current or on going activities is called in-term evaluation.
- 8. …………… Evaluation is needed to tell us if we are doing it effectively, and in an efficient way. If our planning methods are any good and what should we do the next time around. When making evaluation epidemiology helps you to know if you made a progress or not.
- 9. Points that planners should consider when making health program planning Appropriateness – means to consider weather if the program is the suitable one for achieving your goals. Cost effectiveness - compares the costs and health effects of an intervention to assess the degree to which it can be regarded as providing value for money. This informs decision-makers who have to determine where to allocate limited healthcare resources.
- 10. ………… Community need based - A Community Assessment, also called a “Community Needs Assessment,” is a process of collecting, analyzing and reporting information about the needs in a community as well as its strengths and assets. The purpose is to identify unmet community needs and plan ways to meet them. Mix of preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative and public health service – considering the advantage of this program in preventing the problem from future recurrence and promoting the activity against this problem either curing it or providing a public health.
- 11. Uses of epidemiology when considering these previous points when you are dealing with a problem you have to know about this problem and how to prevent it, so epidemiology provides an information about this problem and help you to make the appropriate decisions to achieve your goals. when you are considering cost effectiveness in your health program you should look if your money has a value or not by evaluating whether the cost that you put in is effective and making a profit, epidemiology helps you in making this comparison by helping you compare between the data that you have and the previous data and make sure your money is not wasted.
- 12. ……………. Community based is a systematic method of identifying the unmet health and healthcare needs of a population, so in order to make this assessment you have to gather an information about the population and use this data to know what the community needs. Finally when you are assessing if this program has a future advantage you should also use data provided by epidemiology to compare if you made a progress or not.
Editor's Notes
- #8: Post-hoc is a latin word which means “ AFTER THIS”