Outcomes in action: How relevant to clinical practice are health outcome measures such as the rate of unintended pregnancies in young teenagers?
- نوع فایل : کتاب
- زبان : انگلیسی
- مؤلف : A. BIGRIGG
- چاپ و سال / کشور: 2000
Description
Scienti¢c evidence shows that correct contraceptive use will prevent unintended pregnancy and the provision of contraceptives is recognized as a cost-e،ective intervention. This could encourage health authorities to keep investing more resources in family planning until the target rate of unintended pregnancies is reached, but if this was the only approach taken, the target rate never would be reached. Clinicians and their public health colleagues need to examine their practice in the light of all available evidence. Once desirable changes of practice are identi¢ed, local relevant health outcome measures need to be used to assess the e،ectiveness of the chosen approaches. Blunt factors, such as the unin- tended pregnancy rate in a city or region, will not su¤ce to inform individuals whether they are contributing to the overall picture. Randomized controlled trials are regarded by many as the gold standard of clinical evidence [1]. In the ¢eld of fertility regulation, however, these trials cannot give all the necessary information for managing this complex health outcome. Health-needs assessments are a vital part of the jigsaw, and can be de¢ned as a process for setting and monitoring the health status and the health needs of the local population and identifying changes to services which should lead to health gain. Figure 1 demon- strates the relationship between need, demand and want and how these can be optimally matched to improve health outcome. Health-needs assessment can then be the basis for the development of local strategies as shown in Figure 2
Advances in Contraception, 1999; 15: 245^256. #2000Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in theNetherlands
