Use of maternal and child health services and immunization coverage in Panama and Guatemala.

In 1979 a family planning and maternalchild health (FP/MCH) survey was conducted in Panama by the Population Studies Office of Panama’s Ministry of Health, with technical assistance from the Family Planning Evaluation Division of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (1). This type of survey, conducted in several Latin American countries, has been useful in providing demographic and program data for the evaluation of family planning programs (2). In addition to other types of information, the Panama survey also collected data on the immunization status of all children under six years of age-making Panama the only country in the Americas besides the United States that is known to have conducted a national immunization survey. This article presents results of the Panama survey regarding mothers’ use of maternal