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Division of Reproductive
Health: Activities—Demographic Research and Program
Evaluation |
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Demographic research and program evaluation are the cornerstones of the
longstanding collaboration between CDC's Division of Reproductive Health (DRH) and
the U.S. Agency for International Development, Population/Reproductive
Health Office (USAID/PRH) in pursuit of the common objective of:
“reducing unintended pregnancy and promoting healthy reproductive health
behavior” in less developed countries. To achieve this objective,
public health leaders, medical professionals and policymakers need accurate
and timely information about their country’s population and health status,
including contraceptive use and need, fertility, infant mortality,
behavioral risk factors, HIV/AIDS awareness and prevalence, maternal and
child health, gender equity, and gender-based violence.
As a member organization of the USAID-supported
MEASURE II Project,
CDC's Division of Reproductive Health provides information on these key public health topics as part of the
MEASURE CDC project through technical
leadership, innovation and support to host country institutions and partners
in less developed countries worldwide. MEASURE II partner organizations
also include the International Programs Center of the Census Bureau,
MEASURE/Evaluation (implemented by the Carolina Population Center,
University of North Carolina), and MEASURE/DHS (implemented by Macro
International Inc. (ORC Macro)).
Projects are often conducted in collaboration with these partners as well as
with a broad spectrum of international donor organizations, including the UN
Agencies, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank. Key
stakeholders typically include USAID field missions, Ministries of Health,
Ministries of Youth, statistical offices or bureaus, private research
organizations, universities, policymakers (legislative, presidential), and
non-governmental health organizations.
MEASURE CDC employs a variety of scientific approaches —population-based
surveys, qualitative research, rapid assessment tools — to generate
information vital to understanding complex public health issues. Technical
assistance encompasses state-of-the-art survey instruments that can be
adapted to the country’s need, efficient sampling techniques, user-friendly
data processing software, and expert support for analyzing the data. MEASURE
CDC
works hand-in-hand with the host country institutions and partners to
strengthen local skills in every aspect of conducting a survey, starting
with survey design and data collection and including analysis,
interpretation, and dissemination of the survey findings.
CDC also has a history of collaboration with the Indian Health Service (IHS),
and since 1987 has provided IHS with technical assistance in collecting
baseline behavioral risk factor and reproductive health data from adult
American Indians. Surveys have been conducted on more than 20 reservations
and in four non-reservation urban and rural areas.
Program Impact
Family planning and reproductive health programs use the survey data to
define program priorities and to evaluate progress toward meeting health or
program goals. The first survey done in a country is primarily used for
raising awareness of reproductive health issues. Countries usually conduct
subsequent surveys (generally every five years) to track trends in
reproductive health indicators and incorporate new topics, depending on the
needs of the country.
Equally important to gathering and analyzing data is translating findings to
define health program priorities and facilitate action by key stakeholders
who share responsibility for improving health programs and services.
Follow-on activities to surveys include the design and implementation of
data use and dissemination workshops, training, and capacity-building among
staff in stakeholder institutions.
Program Area Highlights
CDC's Division Reproductive Health has a long history of supporting
population-based surveys,
with over 75 surveys conducted in 45 countries since 1975. In most of these
countries, the RHS data serve as official statistics and are adopted as such
by the government’s statistical bureaus and Ministries of Health.
Future Directions
Under the MEASURE CDC project, population-based surveys are scheduled to
continue in 2007/2008 in Eastern Europe and Latin America.
Also, heightened concern over maternal mortality, how to measure it, and the
need to improve surveillance systems is on the rise. The CDC is pursuing new
opportunities to respond to technical assistance needs on these and other
key maternal and child health topics. Drawing on the wealth of information
available from the more recent Reproductive Health Surveys, MEASURE CDC seeks to
increase the availability of country data sets for greater use within
counties by researchers and health planners alike. For example, data sets,
standard recode files and data dictionaries will be made available on the
web and on CD-ROM.
The output of the MEASURE CDC research serves as input to other work at the
policy and program level. Emphasis will be placed on facilitating the use of
data and information through secondary analysis, training, and making sure
that information is passed onto potential collaborators. The long history of
conducting population-based surveys has led to the formation of many partners. With the expansion of topics
included in population-based surveys, such as Intimate Partner Violence and
HIV, greater effort is required to cultivate non-traditional collaborators
from the education and cultural government ministries, faith-based
institutions and grass-roots organizations.
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Page last reviewed: 8/17/07
Page last modified: 9/26/06
Content source: Division
of Reproductive Health,
National Center for Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health Promotion |
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