likely to benefit from them. Either the U.S. Eureau of 

 the Census or a body such as the International 

 Statistical Institute could provide a training and 

 advisory mechanism for organizing and carrying out low- 

 cost household surveys relating to population and 

 health, and perhaps to some aspects of nutrition. The 

 U.S. Center for Disease Control and various university 

 and private groups could also assist. 



Periodic surveys generally require a permanent 

 organization, with highly trained professional staff in 

 a number of disciplines (mathematical statistics, 

 operations research, applied statistics, social 

 psychology, economics, and data processing) , as well as 

 qualified interviewers and supervisors. The United 

 States could share its experience in developing, 

 organizing, and operating survey systems, and could 

 assist with the required adjustments to developing 

 country conditions, including devising lower cost 

 approaches, and with academic and on-the-job training. 



Sample surveys can provide definitive information 

 at an aggregate geographical level but may be 

 inadequate for identifying programmatic implications at 

 the local level. The United states has a need for, and 

 some experience in, developing methods for obtaining 

 synthetic estimates of local conditions from national 

 data, and should welcome collaboration in further 

 efforts in this direction. 



Intensive interviewing, participant observation, 

 and related microstudy field techniques yield a type of 

 information that complements that obtained through 

 surveys. Ideally, selection of study areas should be 

 based on sampling frames. Intensive studies conducted 

 over one to two years require trained, linguistically 

 competent professionals. Shorter term studies using 

 similar techniques can be aimed at more restricted, 

 specialized problems. Such microstudies identify the 

 socioeconomic context within which different levels of 

 reproduction, health, and nutrition occur, and help in 

 the interpretation of survey results. They shed light 

 on validity (the extent to which a measuring instrument 

 measures what it purports to measure) , on process (not 

 just "what," but "how") , and provide depth to 

 complement the breadth of surveys. 



Much time, effort, and money can be saved if 

 efficient networks for information retrieval , 

 dissemination, and storage can be devised, installed, 

 and maintained. Many kinds of networks for sharing 

 information could be established, and the United states 

 has experience, and some expertise, in applying such 

 systems in the health and population fields. While 

 such systems tend to be demanding in terms of hardware 

 and personnel and relatively expensive, they can be 

 cost-effective in some instances. The United states 



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