| Indicator | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|
| Couple Years Protections (CYPs) | Easily calculated from routinely collected data on contraceptives distributed, IUD insertions, and sterilizations. Can serve as a proxy for number of active users, which is difficult to estimate accurately. It is the measure often used by social marketing or retail outlet sales programs. | May interfere with informed choice because there may be a bias toward providing long-term clinical methods, such as sterilization and IUDs, in order to achieve higher CYP. Provides no information on continuation rates. |
| Number of New Users | Easily counted from routinely collected program data. Provides a way to measure an increase in acceptance of family planning. | Differing definitions of what constitutes a new user causes confusion. If users change sites within the same program, they can be counted twice as new users. Provides no information on continuation rates. |
| Total Number of Users | By counting continuing users, this measure gives providers an incentive to provide quality follow-up services to new users. Provides information on continuation rates and is thus a more accurate indicator of service quality and of program effectiveness. | Users who switch methods may be counted twice as new users. It is difficult to collect reliable information on active or continuing users. |
| Number of Family Planning Visits (for clinics and CBD programs that make home visits) | Available from routinely collected data in clinics. Gives equal weight to serving new and continuing users. Promotes informed choice by giving equal weight to all family planning methods. | Visits for clinical methods such as the IUD or sterilization consume much more staff time and resources than routine visits for resupply of pills or condoms and thus aren't truly comparable. |