Every five years, the National Statistics Office conducts a National Demographic and Health Survey which mainly looks at the health of women and children. The earliest surveys focused on family planning, but over the years it has expanded to become the most comprehensive source of information on other health issues in the country.
Just to give a few examples, you can find statistics on the use of tobacco, domestic violence and sexual behavior. There is also information on households’ access to safe water, ownership of durable goods, exposure to mass media. What I find most useful in the NDHS is the breakdown of statistics according to urban/rural residence, region, age groups and, in more recent surveys, income.
Except in 2003, all the surveys have been limited to women respondents, but the information remains important because our women play so many important roles in health care, within and outside the home.
The final results from the 2008 survey, with 13, 594 women interviewed from all the regions in the Philippines, were presented last week. The NSO asked me to respond to the findings concerning HIV/AIDS and TB during the dissemination symposium, and I thought I’d share my thoughts about the findings about TB.
