Jamieson, LiseEvans, DeniseBerhanu, RebeccaIsmail, Nazir AhmedAucock, SamanthaWallengren, KristinaLong, Lawrence2020-07-152020-07-152019Jamieson, 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. 1-8.1471-2458 (online)10.1186/s12889-019-7965-9http://hdl.handle.net/2263/75289BACKGROUND : 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.en© The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.EDRWebTierNetData qualityRoutine dataData qualitySouth Africa (SA)Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB)Antiretroviral therapy (ART)Tuberculosis (TB)Article