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Public health decision-making is critically dependent on the timely availability of sound data. The role of health information systems is to generate, analyse and disseminate such data. In practice, health information systems rarely function systematically. The products of historical, social and economic forces, they are complex, fragmented and unresponsive to needs. International donors in health are largely responsible for the problem, having prioritized urgent needs for data over longer-term country capacity-building. The result is painfully apparent in the inability of most countries to generate the data needed to monitor progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Solutions to the problem must be comprehensive; money alone is likely to be insufficient unless accompanied by sustained support to country systems development coupled with greater donor accountability and allocation of responsibilities. The Health Metrics Network, a global collaboration in the making, is intended to help bring such solutions to the countries most in need. Copyright © 2005 World Health Organization [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maternal mortality is an important measure of women's health and indicative of the performance of health care systems. Several international conferences, most recently the Millennium Summit in 2000, have included the goal of reducing maternal mortality. However, monitoring progress towards the goal has proved to be problematic because maternal mortality is difficult to measure, especially in developing countries with weak health information and vital registration systems. This has led to interest in using alternative indicators for monitoring progress. This article examines recent trends in two indicators associated with maternal mortality: the percentage of births assisted by a skilled health care worker and rates of caesarean delivery. Globally, modest improvements in coverage of skilled care at delivery have occurred, with an average annual increase of 1.7% over the period 1989-99. Progress has been greatest in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, with annual increases of over 2%. In sub-Saharan Africa, on the other hand, coverage has stagnated. In general, caesarean delivery rates were stable over the 1990s. Countries where rates of caesarean deliveries were the lowest--and where the needs were greatest--showed the least change. This analysis leads us to conclude that whereas there may be grounds for optimism regarding trends in maternal mortality in parts of North Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East, the situation in sub-Saharan Africa remains disquieting. Copyright © 2001 World Health Organization [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: To present estimates of maternal mortality in 188 countries, areas, and territories for 1995 using methodologies that attempt to improve comparability. METHODS: For countries having data directly relevant to the measurement of maternal mortality, a variety of adjustment procedures can be applied depending on the nature of the data used. Estimates for countries lacking relevant data may be made using a statistical model fitted to the information from countries that have data judged to be of good quality. Rather than estimate the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMRatio) directly, this model estimates the proportion of deaths of women of reproductive age that are due to maternal causes. Estimates of the number of maternal deaths are then obtained by applying this proportion to the best available figure of the total number of deaths among women of reproductive age. FINDINGS: On the basis of this exercise, we have obtained a global estimate of 515,000 maternal deaths in 1995, with a worldwide MMRatio of 397 per 100,000 live births. The differences, by region, were very great, with over half (273,000 maternal deaths) occurring in Africa (MMRatio: > 1000 per 100,000), compared with a total of only 2000 maternal deaths in Europe (MMRatio: 28 per 100,000). Lower and upper uncertainty bounds were also estimated, on the basis of which the global MMRatio was unlikely to be less than 234 or more than 635 per 100,000 live births. These uncertainty bounds and those of national estimates are so wide that comparisons between countries must be made with caution, and no valid conclusions can be drawn about trends over a period of time. CONCLUSION: The MMRatio is thus an imperfect indicator of reproductive health because it is hard to measure precisely. It is preferable to use process indicators for comparing reproductive health between countries or across time periods, and for monitoring and evaluation purposes. Copyright © 2001 World Health Organization [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) as the unit in which to calculate the burden of disease associated with reproductive ill-health has given rise to considerable debate. Criticisms include the failure to address the problem of missing and inadequate epidemiological data, inability to deal adequately with co-morbidities, and lack of transparency in the process of ascribing disability weights to sexual and reproductive health conditions. Many of these criticisms could be addressed within the current DALY framework and a number of suggestions to do so are made. These suggestions include: (1) developing an international research strategy to determine the incidence and prevalence of reproductive ill-health and diseases, including the risk of long-term complications; (2) undertaking a research strategy using case studies, population-based surveillance data and longitudinal studies to identify, evaluate and utilize more of the existing national data sources on sexual and reproductive health; (3) comprehensively mapping the natural history of sexual and reproductive health conditions--in males and in females--and their sequelae, whether physical or psychological; (4) developing valuation instruments that are adaptable for both chronic and acute health states, that reflect a range of severity for each health state and can be modified to reflect prognosis; (5) undertaking a full review of the DALY methodology to determine what changes may be made to reduce sources of methodological and gender bias. Despite the many criticisms of the DALY as a measurement unit, it represents a major conceptual advance since it permits the combination of life expectancy and levels of dysfunction into a single measure. Measuring reproductive ill-health by counting deaths alone is inadequate for a proper understanding of the dimensions of the problem because of the young age of many of the deaths associated with reproductive ill-health and the large component of years lived with disability from many of the associated conditions. Copyright © World Health Organization 2000 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the use of the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) to calculate the burden of disease associated with reproductive ill-health. Data inputs for calculating DALYs; Definition of the boundaries of sexual and reproductive health; Description of sexual and reproductive health states.

Focuses on the implementation of the Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt. Debate on population and development; Recommendations regarding population growth, structure and distribution policies; Relationship between population growth and food availability.