Gender analysis of health facility utilization in Uganda

A gender analysis study of health facility utilization rates in Uganda over the period July 2003 to April 2004 was undertaken in four districts of Uganda. The key conclusions are that: (1) Collecting data to analyze for gender and age categories is a possible but tedious in a paper based system and is made more difficult in the absence of the Records Assistants; (2) Despite the limitations of sample size, there are indications that gender and age specific inequities do exist; (3) Although the study makes no firm conclusions as to whether there is gender or age specific inequity in OPD attendance, it does indicate that this information is collected using the current HMIS;(4) In an attempt to provide technical support to ensure that such data will be subsequently easy to retrieve, the team worked with the RA and I/C during the review but the contact was limited and it cannot be guaranteed that the process of data retrieval was improved. The key recommendations are that: (1) Conduct a detailed gender analysis study for the HSSP output indicators such as OPD utilization, immunization rates and some priority diseases such as malaria, and ARI pneumonia especially in childhood. (2) Institutionalize the conduct of gender and age specific analysis of routine HMIS data. A more pragmatic approach would be to conduct such record reviews every year or to routinely report gender disaggregated data in the HMIS monthly report. (3) Improve the capacity for HMIS data management to ease retrieval and analysis at facility level.