Evaluation on efficiency of HIV testing of PMTCT program in China

Objective To explore the theory and method of measuring the technical efficiency of public health programs based on data enve lopment analysis(D EA).Methods The technicale fficiency and scale efficiency of HIV testing of 85 preventing mother to child transmission(PM TCT)program counties were evaluated with a DEA model with nond iscretionary inputs.Results The mean pure technical efficiency of 85 program counties was 0.590.Eleven program counties were DEA efficient,and other program counties were DEA inefficient with the min mium efficiency score of 0.160.The mean efficiency scale of 85 program counties were 0.884.Six program counties are scale efficient,and most program counties had efficiency scores over 0.8.Conclusion The DEA model with nondiscre tionary inputs could successfully deals with the problem of non comparability and could be applied to evaluate the technical efficiency of public programs.The DEA results can provide useful information for program m anagement,especially for performance management.