Population Health Metrics for Surgery: Effective Coverage of Surgical Services in Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries WORLD JOURNAL OF SURGERY Ozgediz, D., Hsia, R., Weiser, T., Gosselin, R., Spiegel, D., Bickler, S., Dunbar, P., McQueen, K. 2009; 33 (1): 1-5

Abstract

Access to surgical services is emerging as a crucial issue in global public health. "Effective coverage" is a health metric used to evaluate essential health services in low- and middle-income countries. It measures the fraction of potential health gained that is actually realized for a given intervention by integrating the concepts of need, use, and quality.This study applies the concept of effective coverage to surgical services by considering injuries and obstetric complications as high-priority surgical conditions in low- and middle-income countries.Effective coverage for both is poor, but it is less well defined for traumatic conditions compared to obstetric conditions owing to a lack of data.More primary and secondary data are critical to measure effective coverage and to estimate the resources required to improve access to surgical services in low- and middle-income countries.

View details for DOI 10.1007/s00268-008-9799-y

View details for Web of Science ID 000261657300001

View details for PubMedID 18958518