ABSTRACT
From 1997, basic maternal and child health services have been provided through municipalities. The ministry of Health and Welfare has requested all municipalities to publish a MCH promotion plan. We conducted a qualitative analysis of important contents of the plans using an evaluation index of original dichotomous variables. Out of 3,256 municipalities, 2,873 developed the plans for MCH promotion. Most of the plans present descriptions of the significance of MCH promotion planning, goals of the plans, problems of current MCH statistics and services, and plans of providing services. The proportion was low for plans which have needs assessment of target population, indicators of evaluation of plans, description of the relationship between objectives and services, importance of objectives, action plans, specific chapter or evaluation of the plan, monitoring of the plan, and plans for informing public of the MCH plan. Therefore, the MCH promotion plans have weaknesses in evaluation and action. The MCH promotion plans of middle sized cities were more likely to have these important contents. We will continue to analyze the processes for producing of excellent MCH promotion plans to extract universal promoting factors for producing MCH promotion plans.
Subject(s)
Child Health Services/organization & administration , Health Promotion/organization & administration , Maternal Health Services/organization & administration , Child, Preschool , Data Collection , Female , Health Planning , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Japan , Public Health NursingABSTRACT
In Japan, a community-based stroke registry was started in 1992 based on the policy of the central government. There are mainly two objectives in this registry system. One is to analyze factors related to the incidence of stroke, and the other is to support home care of stroke patients after leaving the hospital. This system has experienced many difficulties, such as obtaining appropriate information smoothly from the hospitals. Therefore, we investigated all 895 public health centers in Japan through a questionnaire sent by mail, in February 1996. We obtained valid replies from 612 (68%) of the public health centers by March 1996. Results showed that 75% of health centers have established a stroke registry system. Some health centers have promoted the system since 1984. In these systems, the flows of information are mainly of two types: ones which flow to the health centers from the hospitals and the ones which flow to the municipalities. In the former, the number of registered cases were significantly higher and the registry was functioning better than the latter. It has become clear that the health center plays a key role in the successful development of a stroke registry system.
