Maureen TEMBEI AYOK1*, Maurice EBODE2, Martin YAKUM 1,*, Joel BAYIHA1, Benjamin AZIKE2, Joliette AZAKOH 3, Anthony Chebe 2, Sonia Nafack3, Pascal GOURA1, Frank KIADJIEU 1, Landry BEYALA1, Manualla CHEUGEU 3, Ismael KENGMO3, Jerome ATEUDJIEU 1,
1M.A. SANTE (Meilleure accès aux soins de santé), P.O.Box 33490 Yaoundé –Cameroun 2M.A. SANTE (Meilleure accès aux soins de santé), Kousseri –Cameroun ; 3M.A. SANTE (Meilleure accès aux soins de santé), Douala –Cameroun
CaHReF 2018, Yaoundé Congres hall, 08 – 11 January 2019 , OSEP072
Background: The availability of reliable epidemiological data from active surveillance is crucial to efficient implementation of any prevention and preparedness measure for epidemic diseases such as cholera. There is limited knowledge available on the quality of information provided in diarrhoeal disease surveillance registers in Cameroon.
Objectif: This study assessed quality and completeness of external consultation registers evaluating it's used for cholera surveillance in the Far North and Littoral regions of
Methodology: A descriptive cross sectional study design was used. Seven health districts and 22 health facilities within far north and littoral regions were purposively sampled. At health facilities, all external consultation registers were reviewed and assessed for data quality using semi-structured questionnaires. Random sampling of the last 10 diarrhoeal patients per register was done to assess completeness and adequacy of data provided on key diarrhoeal parameters based on cholera case definition (age, acute diarrhea, number of stools within 24hrs, type of diarrhea, symptoms) to enable case detection. Descriptive statistics was used in SPSS version 22 to summarize and describe the data.
Results: Results showed that 87% of the variables present in registers could be used in detecting suspected cholera cases. For data completeness and adequacy, all variables assessed had high levels of missing patient records except for age and symptoms. Only 0.9% of diarrhoeal patients did not have age recorded and 1.4% did not have information on diarrhoea associated symptoms. For other variables, 96.3%, 93.9% and 70.7% of patients did not have information on duration of diarrhoea before consultation, number of stools within 24hours and type of diarrhoea patients were experiencing respectively. Fever, vomiting, fatigue and dehydration were mostly associated with diarrhoeal.
Conclusion/Recommandation: Data quality for cholera surveillance in these regions of Cameroon is poor in terms of data completeness which intends affects the reliability and usefulness of available data for active cholera surveillance and case detection. Based on results from this study, it is recommended that knowledge of health personnel in charge of external consultation registers should be improved through refresher training courses focusing on elucidating the utmost importance of quality data entry in registers for surveillance.
Key Words:Cholera, Diarrhoeal, Surveillance, Data Completeness, Registers