The field teams assigned for conducting the health survey have accomplished about 50% of their task by the end of the fourth week. 5283 families out of a total target of 10900 families have been reached and this first phase of data collecting is expected to accomplish within two weeks, said the General Coordinator of the Health Survey and MOH Assistant Undersecretary for Planning and Research Dr. Ghazi Al-Jeelani.
According to Dr. Khojah records showed high response among families. About 81% of targeted families responded to the survey works, but response among inhabitants of popular quarters has been higher compared to response among inhabitants of high class quarters, where people might have been more busy.
He said teams were confronted by some difficulties during the first week, which is natural in such field works. They found some difficulties in reaching targeted families and in some cases they had to repeat visits many times in order to work out a suitable appointment.
"We are working with some WHO experts in training workers in data entry", he said. "We need to enter the data to be collected by 147 field teams, each team being composed of a physician, a nurse and a supervisor".
He said the survey aims at collecting documented and accurate information about the health situation of the population for the purpose of exploring health indicators such as morbidity burdens and hereditary diseases. It also aims at identifying the most important health problems affecting the population as well as establishing a database for use of decision makers.