A study of the effectiveness of family planning clinics in the Philippines

A study of 190 Philippine family planning clinics revealed that certain clinic and physician characteristics were significantly and positively associated with clinic effectiveness, defined in terms of the mean number of monthly acceptors of family planning and the efficacy of the methods selected. Clinics with a high degree of effectiveness were more likely to be staffed by physicians who wanted three or fewer children, who relied more extensively on the IUD (intrauterine device) than physicians in less effective clinics, and who derived more satisfaction from working in family planning than physicians in less effective clinics. Autonomous clinics were more effective than integrated clinics, and clinics staffed by physicians trained by institutions with more experience in family planning were more effective than those staffed by physicians trained by institutions with less experience in this field. The findings regarding the following hypotheses were in the predicted direction: Clinic effectiveness will be greater in clinics staffed by female rather than by male physicians, in urban rather than in rural clinics, in clinics staffed by physicians with a low rather than a high degree of religiosity, and in clinics staffed by physicians with a high rather than a low degree of concern about population growth. The differences in clinic effectiveness, however, in these instances, were not significant.