Objective:

To develop and evaluate a new measure—couple years protection lost (CYPL)—to identify facilities with the most damaging contraceptive stockouts and therefore direct program response.

Methods:

As part of a prospective descriptive study, data were gathered on stocks of contraceptives (oral contraceptive pill, intrauterine device, and two types of implant) at 10 family planning facilities in Abuja, Nigeria, between January and August 2012. CYPL values—a summation of average client volume across contraceptive methods multiplied by the number of stockouts and the USAID couple years of protection value for each method—were calculated for each facility.

Results:

Over the 8-month study period, the 10 facilities had CYPL values ranging from 15.7 to 588.7. Two facilities had a similarly high number of stockouts (9 vs 8), but completely different CYPL values (462.1 vs 15.7).

Conclusion:

By utilizing the CYPL measure, health programs can target family planning facilities with the most damaging stockouts first and thus strategically reduce the negative impact of contraceptive stockouts.