[Health statistics and health index in developing countries]

Having briefly criticized those health indexes which are currently used, the author suggests that the LDC'S should exploit the information contained in routine statistical reports of health services activities: utilization rate (number of patients divided by population served) and intensity of service rate (number of visits per patient). She shows that these rate depend not only on morbidity, but also on the characteristics of the supply of health services (distance . . .) and on the characteristics of the demand for those services (behavioral attitudes of the patients . . .). The author uses multiple regression techniques to isolate the influence of these factors on utilization rate and on service's intensity. She concludes that the residual may be considered as a health status indicator. The application of this method to data for the forty administrative areas of Cameroon (1970 and 1975), shows that the resulting health index is correlated with infant mortality rates and with sanitary conditions.