| Intervention coverage—the proportion of the population with a health-care need who receive care—does not account
for intervention quality and potentially overestimates health benefits of services provided to populations. Effective
coverage introduces the dimension of quality of care to the measurement of intervention coverage. Many definitions
and methodological approaches to measuring effective coverage have been developed, resulting in confusion over
definition, calculation, interpretation, and monitoring of these measures. To develop a consensus on the definition
and measurement of effective coverage for maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (MNCAHN),
WHO and UNICEF convened a group of experts, the Effective Coverage Think Tank Group, to make recommendations
for standardising the definition of effective coverage, measurement approaches for effective coverage, indicators of
effective coverage in MNCAHN, and to develop future effective coverage research priorities. Via a series of
consultations, the group recommended that effective coverage be defined as the proportion of a population in need of
a service that resulted in a positive health outcome from the service. The proposed effective coverage measures and
care cascade steps can be applied to further develop effective coverage measures across a broad range of MNCAHN
services. Furthermore, advances in measurement of effective coverage could improve monitoring efforts towards the
achievement of universal health coverage. |