Effective coverage of health interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean: metrics for the assessment of health systems performance.

OBJECTIVE: To measure effective coverage for ll health interventions in Latin America including the children's- women's and adult health- as part of program evaluation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Interventions were selected/ the definitions and calculation methods were harmonized according to the information available to ensure comparability between countries. RESULTS: Chile has better indicators of crude and effective coverage followed by Mexico and Colombia.There are significant gaps between regions- counties or states. CONCLUSIONS: The health metric on effective coverage is a sensitive indicator that links three important aspects: Coverage of health interventions- use of health services- and access to such services. Effective coverage is a good tool to evaluate health programs performance- and also provides data of where and to whom the system should address national efforts and resources to achieve the purposes and goals set.