On the Bias in Estimating Program Effects Using Clinic Based Data

This presentation was commissioned by the Poverty Reduction and Social Protection Network of the Regional Policy Dialogue for the VI Hemispheric Meeting celebrated on December 9th and 10th, 2003. Can clinic based data give good estimates of program impact? Most large scale nutrition interventions do not have accompanying social experiment. Nature of program; costs; political constraints. Clinic based data on nutritional status is available virtually everywhere. Useful to know whether these data can be used for program evaluation.