This ppt is about how epidemiology helps in planning and evaluation programs.

1. UNIVERSITY OF HARGEISA
COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES
FACULTY OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY
BY.
DR. ABDIRAHMAN ABDILIAHI MOHAMED

2. Uses of epidemiology in health program
planning and evaluation

3. Outline
 Difference between planning and evaluation and how
epidemiology helps each.
 Points to be considered in health planning
- appropriateness
- cost effective
- community need based
- mix of preventive, promotive, curative,
rehabilitative and public health services.

4. What is or planning?
 Planning (also called forethought) is the process of
thinking about and organizing the activities required to
achieve a desired goal with the available resources.
The planning process
(1) identifies the goals or objectives to be achieved,
(2) formulates strategies to achieve them,
(3) arranges or creates the means required, and
(4) implements, directs, and monitors all steps in their
proper sequence.

5. …….. Planning has types
 Strategic planning - A systematic process of envisioning a
desired future, and translating this vision into broadly
defined goals or objectives and a sequence of steps to
achieve them.
 Program planning – A plan of action aimed at
accomplishing a clear objective, with details on
what work is to be done, by whom, when, and
what means or resources will be used.
 Operational planning -
A type of work planning which analyses a strategic plan
into operational periods

6. …………
 Epidemiology helps planners to know what is the problem
they are dealing with, which place the problem exists and
what kind of people the problem effects, it also helps in
analyzing the problem to know what is the causative
agent and how to prevent it.
By knowing all this, it is easy for planners to make the
appropriate decisions.

7. What is evaluation ?
 Rigorous analysis of completed or ongoing activities to determine
the effectiveness, and the efficiency of a program and to see if it
achieved its objectives. Evaluation of completed activities is
called ex-post evaluation, post-hoc evaluation, or summative
evaluation. Evaluation of current or on going activities is called
in-term evaluation.

8. ……………
 Evaluation is needed to tell us if we are doing it effectively,
and in an efficient way. If our planning methods are any
good and what should we do the next time around.
 When making evaluation epidemiology helps you to know if
you made a progress or not.

9. Points that planners should consider
when making health program planning
 Appropriateness – means to consider weather if the
program is the suitable one for achieving your goals.
 Cost effectiveness - compares the costs and health
effects of an intervention to assess the degree to which it
can be regarded as providing value for money. This
informs decision-makers who have to determine where to
allocate limited healthcare resources.

10. …………
 Community need based - A Community Assessment, also
called a “Community Needs Assessment,” is a process of
collecting, analyzing and reporting information about the
needs in a community as well as its strengths and assets.
The purpose is to identify unmet community needs and
plan ways to meet them.
 Mix of preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative
and public health service – considering the advantage of
this program in preventing the problem from future
recurrence and promoting the activity against this
problem either curing it or providing a public health.

11. Uses of epidemiology when considering
these previous points
 when you are dealing with a problem you have to know about this
problem and how to prevent it, so epidemiology provides an
information about this problem and help you to make the
appropriate decisions to achieve your goals.
 when you are considering cost effectiveness in your health program
you should look if your money has a value or not by evaluating
whether the cost that you put in is effective and making a profit,
epidemiology helps you in making this comparison by helping you
compare between the data that you have and the previous data and
make sure your money is not wasted.

12. …………….
 Community based is a systematic method of identifying
the unmet health and healthcare needs of a population,
so in order to make this assessment you have to gather an
information about the population and use this data to
know what the community needs.
 Finally when you are assessing if this program has a future
advantage you should also use data provided by
epidemiology to compare if you made a progress or not.