How to Investigate Drug Use in Health Facilities: Selected Drug Use Indicators - EDM Research Series No. 007
(1993; 92 pages) [French] [Spanish] View the PDF document
Table of Contents
Open this folder and view contentsIntroduction
Open this folder and view contentsChapter 1: Overview
Open this folder and view contentsChapter 2: Core drug use indicators
Open this folder and view contentsChapter 3: Study design and sample size
Open this folder and view contentsChapter 4: Planning and field methods
Close this folderChapter 5: Analysis and reporting
View the documentCalculating results for each facility
View the documentDisplaying the results
View the documentReporting results at the facility
View the documentReporting at the administrative level
View the documentResults of earlier drug use studies
Open this folder and view contentsChapter 6: Follow up questions
Open this folder and view contentsAnnexes
 

Displaying the results

Results need to be displayed for reporting at two levels: at the facility and at the higher administrative level. At the facility level it will usually only be possible to display the results in a simple table. However, at the district or regional level graphic displays should be used wherever possible.

Facility summary table

For displaying the results at the facility it may be useful to prepare a form which compares the results from the facility with those from a previous survey, with summary results for all facilities, or with national standards. The original form is reproduced in Annex 2. Fill in two copies of this form and leave one at the facility. The other form can be used to complete the consolidation form used to collect results for all facilities in the study.

Consolidation table for all facilities

After the data have been collected from each facility, enter the results each day onto a consolidation form (see Annex 2). Do this every day, in case a record or form for a facility gets lost. This way the missing information can be more easily traced closer to the time that it was lost. If available, an alternative is to enter the data directly into the computerized version of the form which is included with the computer spreadsheet. If the spreadsheet is used, minimum and maximum values and the standard errors for individual indicators can also be generated.

Graphic displays of results

When the facility data have been entered into the consolidation table, it is easy to generate bar charts showing the number of facilities at different levels of each indicator and how the facilities vary. These charts are only indicative of how the different facilities compare, because the number of prescriptions studied in each facility (usually 30 in a basic survey) is too low to give a reliable picture of that individual facility. Yet these comparative data are useful for identifying facilities where follow-up activities could be undertaken. Note that it is also possible to highlight contrasts between different types of facilities in these figures, by using different shaded bars. Some examples are given in Annex 3.

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Last updated: May 3, 2013