UDSH 2000: Why are Health Indicators Declining?

ABSTRACT

Indicators are measures of performance. They are used quite often by policy makers and managers to measure progress and the impact of programmes. They are also used to measure overall performance in the health and other social sectors. For example; one of the indicators used to measure the impact of health and other social programmes is the infant mortality rate. This indicator is believed to be sensitive to changes in the health; social; economic and environmental sectors that it can be used as a summary measure of performance in those sectors. This paper reviews the preliminary findings on indicators from the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS) 2000/01. A computation of what these indicators translate to is presented. The details on the formulae; equations and data requirements used to calculate the indicators is beyond the scope of this paper. This presentation aims at providing insight into what the UDHS 2000 indicators imply; and what they translate to in order to assist approariate planning and advocacy for resource allocation