Data quality of drug-resistant tuberculosis and antiretroviral therapy electronic registers in South Africa
Loading...
Date
Authors
Jamieson, Lise
Evans, Denise
Berhanu, Rebecca
Ismail, Nazir Ahmed
Aucock, Samantha
Wallengren, Kristina
Long, Lawrence
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BioMed Central
Abstract
BACKGROUND : To assess the quality and completeness of treatment and outcome data in the electronic tuberculosis
(TB) and antiretroviral treatment (ART) registers in drug-resistant (DR-) TB patients at three treatment facilities in
South Africa.
METHODS : We did a retrospective cohort study using routinely-collected data from DR-TB registers of rifampicin
resistant adults (≥18 years old), on ART, initiating DR-TB treatment between January 2012 and December 2013. We
linked patient information from the DR-TB register to the ART register using patient identifiers and an algorithm
based on string edit distance and date of birth. We describe data gaps and discrepancies found.
RESULTS : Overall, 2852 DR-TB patients met our inclusion criteria based on the DR-TB register data, and of these, 1685
(59%) could be matched to the ART registers. An additional 253 patients from the DR-TB registers were found in
the ART registers, having initiated ART, despite the DR-TB register indicating that they were not on ART (or this data
was missing). 11% of matched patients did not have TB treatment status recorded in the ART register despite being
recorded as being on TB treatment in the DR-TB register, and 78% did not have an ART start date recorded in DRTB
register despite being on ART treatment as per the ART register. 11% of matched patients had a death recorded
in one register but not the other, and of those with death recorded in both, 15% of dates differed by > 1 month.
CONCLUSIONS : The underreporting of death and the lack of ART or TB status in the electronic DR-TB and ART
registers could negatively impact monitoring efforts by downplaying the state of the TB/HIV epidemic. Improved
recording of these data sources, and data integration across systems, could improve the accuracy of reporting for
the national HIV/ART and TB programs.
Description
Keywords
EDRWeb, Tier, Net, Data quality, Routine data, Data quality, South Africa (SA), Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), Antiretroviral therapy (ART), Tuberculosis (TB)
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Jamieson, L., Evans, D., Berhanu, R. et al. 2019, 'Data quality of drug-resistant tuberculosis
and antiretroviral therapy electronic
registers in South Africa', BMC Public Health, vol. 19, art. 1638, pp. 1-8.