Posts or Comments 29 March 2024

Uncategorized Bill Brieger | 07 Nov 2017 11:46 am

Data use for malaria decision-making through data monitoring posters in Kribi Cameroon

Kodjo Morgah, Eric M. Tchinda, and Naibei Mbaïbardoum of Jhpiego based in Chad and Cameroon have been building the capacity of health workers to use malaria data to improve services. A summary of their experiences as seen below is being presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Cameroon Malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Cameroon, where an estimated 500,000 cases occur every year and led to 55% of hospitalizations and 241 deaths among pregnant women in 2010.

In order to measure the long-term impact of malaria prevention and treatment interventions at the facility level through outcome indicators, Jhpiego developed a data analysis process using an affiche de monitorage or data monitoring poster, which includes indicators on case management, suspected cases tested, intermittent preventive treatment for pregnant women (IPTp) and use of long-lasting insecticide-treated net (LLINs).

Jhpiego and the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) with support from the ExxonMobil Foundation identified inadequate and irregular data collection and data use as a systemic problem throughout Kribi district. In response, Jhpiego developed and implemented training sessions on the data posters that focused on:

  • the context and rationale for this type of data visualization
  • techniques for data collection, analysis, and interpretation for decision-making, and
  • practical sessions enabling health providers to practice mapping data onto the posters

In September 2015, Jhpiego introduced the posters in 26 health facilities in Kribi that were already trained in malaria prevention and case management interventions. Jhpiego then provided blank copies of the data posters and supported sites via biannual supervision visits during which they reviewed data posters for accuracy against facility registers.

Furthermore, supervisors assessed facility’s progress on their objectives, identified gaps and their causes, and discussed corrective actions. As a result of Jhpiego’s efforts by June 2017, 61% of the trained facilities use the data poster for decision-making. With the introduction of the posters, the percentage of health facilities that did not experience stock shortages increased by 17 percentage points, from 21% in October 2016 to 38% in March 2017.

Additionally, the Ministry of Health requested Jhpiego to lead a training of 181 health administrators and providers aimed at scaling-up the use of the data posters across all 9 districts of the South Region of Cameroon.

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