Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Mar;7(3):e007899.
doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-007899.

Introducing field digital data collection systems into seasonal malaria chemoprevention campaigns: opportunities for robust evidence development and national e-health strategies

Kanda Balla  1 , Kezia Malm  2 , Ousman Njie  3 , Aurore Hounto Ogouyemi  4 , Perpetua Uhomoibhi  5 , Abena Poku-Awuku  6 , André-Marie Tchouatieu  7 , Rock Aikpon  8 , Alieu Bah  3 , Olimatou Kolley  1 , Nnenna Ogbulafor  5 , Samuel Oppong  9 , Kofi Adomako  9 , William Houndjo  4 , Huja Jah  10 , Jaya Banerji  7 , Jamilu Nikau  11 , Cyriaque Affoukou  4 , Elijah Egwu  12 , Camille Houtohossou  4 , Suzanne Van Hulle  12
Affiliations
Review

Introducing field digital data collection systems into seasonal malaria chemoprevention campaigns: opportunities for robust evidence development and national e-health strategies

Kanda Balla et al. BMJ Glob Health. 2022 Mar.

Abstract

Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) is a World Health Organization-recommended intervention to protect children under the age of 5 in Africa's Sahel region. While SMC remains highly effective in decreasing malaria cases, implementing countries face several challenges regarding collecting quality data; monitoring coverage and compliance and overcoming delays in campaigns due to late payment to field distributors.To address these challenges, the National Malaria Control Programmes of Benin, The Gambia, Ghana and Nigeria introduced digital data collection (DDC) tools to support their SMC campaigns. To facilitate cross-country learning, this paper investigates the impact of using DDCs in SMC campaigns by comparing country responses.Country experience suggests that in comparison to paper-based data collection systems, using DDC tools help to overcome data quality and operational challenges; cloud-based features also made data more accessible. Thus, scaling up DDC tools and linking them with routine national health management systems could help generate robust evidence for malaria policy development and programming. Of note, evidence from Benin showed that using digital tools reduced the time to pay staff and volunteers by 5 weeks. In Benin's experience, DDC also offered cost benefits (1.5 times cheaper) versus the use of paper-based tools.The authors note that no application offers greater benefits than the other-countries will select a technology that best suits their needs. Several applications are currently being used and newer ones are also being developed. Another option is to develop in-house applications that can be adjusted to local health programmes.Cost-effectiveness studies to inform on whether DDCs offer cost advantages would be beneficial. More studies on DDC are needed from SMC-implementing countries to identify additional benefits and drawbacks of digital applications. These will similarly help national malaria policy and programming efforts.

Keywords: malaria.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

References

    1. Mutale W, Chintu N, Amoroso C. Population health implementation and training – Africa health Initiative data collaborative. improving health information systems for decision making across five sub-Saharan African countries: implementation strategies from the African health Initiative. BMC Health Services Research 2013;13. - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization . Health metrics network framework and standards for country health information systems. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2008.
    1. Simba DO, Mwangu M. Application of ICT in strengthening health information systems in developing countries in the wake of globalisation. Afr Health Sci 2004;4:194–8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baliga BS, Jain A, Koduvattat N, et al. . Indigenously developed digital handheld Android-based Geographic Information System (GIS)-tagged tablets (TABs) in malaria elimination programme in Mangaluru city, Karnataka, India. Malar J 2019;18:444. 10.1186/s12936-019-3080-8 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chilundo B, Sundby J, Aanestad M. Analysing the quality of routine malaria data in Mozambique. Malar J 2004;3:3. 10.1186/1475-2875-3-3 - DOI - PMC - PubMed