This community innovation has been accepted at the 2025 DHIS2 Annual Conference
Power of DHIS2: Establishing a Pregnancy Cohort
Capitalizing on years of experiences with the DHIS2 system, JSI has established a pregnancy cohort using tracker function of the system. Objectives/Aims To integrate longitudinal study methods/cohort with DHIS2 for monitoring of community based maternal and newborn health service delivery. Methods The pregnancy cohort was established in 8 kebeles (lowest administrative unit) involving 78 volunteer community health workers. The DHIS2 tracker function is used to collect continuous health related data such as their health metrics, lifestyle factors, health services utilization, research interventions and outcomes from pregnant women during pregnancy, intrapartum and postpartum. This cohort tool was customized for mobile based data collection. Results/Key Findings DHIS2 backed this process by making data entry easier, monitoring participants’ health outcomes in real time, and enabling data driven analysis. A total of 467 pregnant women enrolled on the cohort using DHIS2. We tracked a total of 345 women received interventions and counseling during their first follow up; 224 women received interventions and counseling during their second first follow up, 161 women received interventions and counseling during the third visit after delivery. The cohort data revealed mothers and newborns received lifesaving interventions such as iron folic acid, essential newborn care, vaccines given at birth (Polio 0 and BCG), postpartum family planning and utilization of misoprostol for the prevention of postpartum hemorrhage. We demonstrated the feasibility of DHIS2 tracker for establishing community cohort. This helped us in accessing real time data, assuring data consistency and accuracy, and assists in tracking health outcomes over time. Conclusion JSI, by leveraging DHIS2, succeeded in better understanding maternal and child health patterns and predictors, which will be used to influence targeted public health interventions.
Primary Author: Tsegaye Shewangizaw Zergaw
Corresponding Authors: Gizachew Tadele Tiruneh, Alemnesh Mirkuzie
Keywords:
pregnancy, cohort, Ethiopia, DHIS2, maternal, child, community-based, outcome