Note: Ideally, you would carry out a Use/Need analysis for every major health area your program supports every 3-5 years as data sources are available and updated.
This guide will cover how to conduct a Use/Need analysis and Quality of Use analysis.
A “Use/Need Analysis” will identify how great the need is for a particular health area in a country and explore which group (or groups) has the highest gap between Use and Need across different segments. The gap between use and need can then be analyzed through various lenses such as age, gender, geography, wealth quintiles and risk factors to identify the largest groups with unmet need. Use/Need analysis frames the magnitude of need for a product or service in absolute, quantitative terms, which can help us recognize opportunities that might get ‘hidden’ when usage is only discussed as a percentage. The information can be used to select a target consumer segment.
The universe of need is represented by the blue circle below. Within the universe of need, a subset of the population is currently using a product or service. The gap between use and need is what is of most importance.
