Demographic and consultation record descriptions.

The projected number of individuals (2004) served by each community health center (CSCOM) service area within the district of Niono, Mali, is tabulated under the Population heading. Potential records are listed under Time-series period. Unavailable CSCOM service area records appear under Missing dates—the number of missing monthly records for each year is listed in parenthesis otherwise records for the whole year are missing. These are totaled under Missing months and expressed as percentages from the total number of possible monthly records (across all CSCOM service areas) under the % missing heading. Monthly consultation records from each CSCOM service area are adjusted with the annual national population growth rate before missing records are interpolated by CSCOM-specific monthly median values. The total projected population (2004) for the district of Niono is 278 741 individuals, growing 3.2% annually according to regional [39] and national [40] estimates. In the context of consultation rates, years with more than 6 missing monthly records are excluded from median and inter-quartile-range annual consultation rate calculations. Additionally, inter-quartile-range calculations require records from at least 3 eligible years. In the time-series context, however, the projected district population (2004) reduces from 278 741 to 208 743 individuals upon record exclusion from Fassoum, Nara, and Niono CSCOM service areas—which do not span the entire investigational period and possess excessive missing monthly records. Values that are reported in parenthesis under the headings of Population (2004), time-series period, Missing months, and % missing reflect record exclusion from Fassoum, Nara, and Niono CSCOM service areas. After record exclusion, the remaining 14 CSCOM service areas contribute 1428 possible monthly records to the amalgamated time-series, i.e., 14 records per month. Of note, the Niono CSCOM service area, which includes the district center and immediate periphery, is one of the 17 CSCOM service areas within the district of Niono, Mali.