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PubHealth.info®
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PakMed) presents scientific information mainly
based on abstracts of articles published on a variety of public health issues/topics,
particularly encompassing
population planning, disease prevention, maternal and child health,
and communicable and
non-communicable diseases (like HIV AIDS, malaria, etc) that are
affecting a significant portion of population in developing and
developed
countries. Here you can find abstracts of articles published on a variety of public health
topics under category "Contraception
(Birth Control) and Family Planning".
Contraception (birth control)
is a regimen of one or more actions, devices, or medications followed in
order to deliberately prevent or reduce the likelihood of a woman
becoming pregnant or giving birth. Therefore contraception is the
utilization of various and sundry surgical procedures, devices,
practices, agents, or drugs with the intention of preventing conception
or impregnation (pregnancy). Methods and intentions typically termed
birth control may be considered a pivotal ingredient to family
planning. Birth control is a controversial political and ethical
issue in many cultures and religions, and although it is generally less
controversial than abortion specifically. |
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| CATEGORY: |
Contraception (Birth Control) and Family Planning |
| Exchange rates and the costs of family planning [letter] |
| International Family Planning Perspectives. 1993 Jun;19(2):72. |
| Barbara Janowitz and John H. Bratt's "Costs of Family Planning Services: A critique of the Literature" discusses |
| various reasons why it is difficult to measure costs per unit of family planning (FP) services and why cross-national |
| comparisons of such measurements can be misleading. The exchange rate was identified as a major problem |
| inherent in all cross-national comparisons. The problem arises from the possible bias introduced when the local |
| expenditures of a group of countries, each with a different national currency and different underlying wage and price |
| structures, are converted into a single currency (typically US dollars) using an arbitrary set of relative values called |
| exchange rates. Most of the resources going to FP programs in Third World countries are nontraded local resources, |
| mostly skilled and semiskilled labor and use of locally produced buildings and equipment. The relative cost of such |
| services varies from country to country, depending upon the supply and demand conditions for those factors in each |
| country. If the ratio of the cost of medical personnel time required for an IUD insertion in a given country compared |
| with the US is 1:20 and the purchasing power parity rate of exchange between the 2 currencies is 1:10, converting the |
| country's FP costs into dollars using the most correct exchange rate will be incorrect. Since the degree of bias will |
| differ from country to country when compared with the US, all cross-national comparisons made using the common |
| denominator of the dollar will contain an unknown, but probably large, bias. One of Janowitz and Bratt's |
| recommendations should have been to construct an index of the underlying real costs per unit of input into FP |
| programs. This index could then be used as a deflator to make cross-country comparisons possible in common |
| dollar terms. (PubHealth.info Document ID: CONT3T 24-06) |
| PubHealth.info NOTE: The author(s) of this article titled, "Exchange rates and the costs of family planning [letter]", |
| is(are) Robinson WC. The source of this article is "International Family Planning Perspectives. 1993 Jun;19(2):72.". |
| This article was published in 1993 in English language(s). (PubHealth.info® Document ID: CONT3T 24-06. All rights |
| reserved with PubHealth.info) PIN: 10024 |
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