This abstract has been accepted at the 2024 DHIS2 Annual Conference
session link: Integrated Analysis/Triangulation
The Use of Android DHIS2 Capture App to support the implementation of School Malaria Parasitological Survey in Tanzania
National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) conducts the School Malaria Parasitological Survey (SMPS) every two years; the most recent survey was conducted in July 2023. The survey involved about 600+ selected primary schools across the country, in which approximately 60,000 sampled students were interviewed, some were tested for malaria, and further household surveys for at least 30% of sampled students. To accomplish this, 4 tools are required to be filled at each stage. First, tool 1 records general information; tool 2 records malaria lab test information; tool 3 records students’ interview responses about students’ knowledge of malaria and the general status of students’ households; and tool 4 records visited household information, including household members, economic status, and malaria net information. The previous SMPS surveys used paper forms and the ODK tools to collect the survey data. Following the DHIS2-based Malaria Composite Management Information System (CMIS) deployment, NMCP wanted to use DHIS2 to collect and manage data in the 2023 SMPS survey. Therefore, UDSM DHIS2 Lab proposed using the Android DHIS2 Capture app as a tool for field data collection. The digitization of SMPS tools in CMIS involved a series of stakeholder meetings to ensure the users’ requirements were extensively captured and analyzed. The UDSM DHIS2 lab designed and customized the SMPS tools in the CMIS system and made necessary configurations to enable the designed tools to be accessed in DHIS2 Capture App (after making it to accommodate some complex use cases). Depending on the nature of survey tools, tools 3 & 4 were designed as tracker programs with some survey sections put as program stages. Meanwhile, tool 1 was intended as an event program. The sections in the tracker implementation were added within the program stages to provide a more granular display of survey questions. Despite some challenges, the survey teams used the DHIS2 Capture app in the 2023 SMPS survey. The DHIS2 capture app enabled the survey team to record responses from 64463 students from 715 schools, almost 100% of the projected sample size across the country. Furthermore, 6,618 households were visited, and the reactions were also recorded using the DHIS2 capture app during last year’s SMPS survey. Using the DHIS2 Capture app proved beneficial in setting up the tools as quickly as possible. This paved the way for the DHIS2 Capture app to be used in other survey-based implementations conducted by NMCP and other vertical programs.
Primary Author: Fortunatus Kawasa
Keywords:
National Malaria Control Program, Android DHIS2 Capture app, School Malaria Parasitological Survey, Tanzania