Abstract

PIP:

The potential contribution of census and survey data in understanding health conditions and trends in different geographic areas and population subgroups is assessed in this work. A general consensus exists that health problems transcend the narrow limits of the health sector, and a wide range of social and economic data are required for their analysis. The principal limitations of censuses as a source of data for health analysis result from their inclusiveness and time frame. On the one hand, the cost and effort involved limit censuses to one per decade under the best of circumstances. On the other hand , the questionnaire must be limited to a relatively small number of themes and questions given the difficulty of controlling the selection, training, and motivation of the thousands of census takers who are required to complete the interviewing in a very short time. Census data are basically of five types: sociodemographic characteristics, assessments of migration and changes of residence, educational characteristics, occupational characteristics, and fertility and mortality. The census is the single and indispensable source for determining whether population is growing or declining at the national, regional, subregional, or local level, and for urban and rural localities. The census also provides at least approximate data on the weight of the different components of change: fertility, mortality, and migration. Census data can be compared with other data concerning the social and economic processes affecting different localities, in order to determine their impact on population changes. All information on the components and causes of population change can be used in developing population projections. The census provides information on educational progress; on labor force participation unemployment, and activity sectors; on the proportion of housing units that fail to meet minimum standards; on the characteristics of the population in need of health care; and on infant and early childhood mortality, itself an indicator of social development. Surveys study a relatively small fraction of the population selected to be representative but they may do so over a longer period of time using carefully trained and motivated interviewers. The questions may provide far greater depth. Disadvantages of surveys include cost and the difficulty of studying characteristics that are infrequent. Sociodemographic surveys are conducted on a very wide variety of topics. Some of the principal areas that provide information of use in health analysis are those concerning manpower and employment, income and expenditures, the demographic variables of fertility, mortality, and migration, and health status and services. In practice most surveys address more than one of these topics.