Developing a community-led SMS reporting tool for the rapid assessment of lymphatic filariasis morbidity burden: case studies from Malawi and Ghana

Stanton, Michelle C.; Mkwanda, Square Z.; Debrah, Alexander Yaw; Batsa, Linda; Biritwum, Nana Kwadwo; Hoerauf, Achim; Cliffe, Matthew; Best, Abigail; Molineux, Andrew; Kelly-Hope, Louise A.

doi:10.1186/s12879-015-0946-4

Cited by 65 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Consistent with our findings, a recent case study of Mobiles for Reproductive Health in Kenya showed that SMS surveys are a feasible mode of data collection for target populations (12). In Malawi and Ghana, a mobile phone based pilot concluded that community-based health workers were able to quantify LF morbidity burden, and other NTDs with observable symptoms (13). Unlike, the Malawi study, our survey polled the respondent directly for self-reports of clinical signs of lymphedema and hydrocele.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Applying a mobile survey tool for assessing lymphatic filariasis morbidity in Mtwara Municipal Council of Tanzania

Mwingira¹,

Downs

Uisso³

et al. 2017

mHealth

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Background: A number of methods have been used to estimate lymphatic filariasis (LF) morbidity, including: routine programmatic data, cluster random surveys and the "town crier" method. Currently, few accurate data exist on the global LF morbidity burden in Tanzania. We aimed to estimate prevalence of lymphedema and hydrocele in Mtwara Municipal Council using mobile phone based survey. Methods:A cross-sectional survey was conducted among adults of Mtwara Municipal council with access to mobile phones. A sample size of at least 384 completed surveys was required to estimate prevalence of lymphedema (both males and females) and hydrocele (males only) morbidity of 50% within a 5% error margin given a 5% level of significance and 95% confidence level. Eligible mobile phone users received a short message text (SMS) requesting consent to participate in the survey. A total of 10 questions were administered via interactive SMS through the GeoPoll, a survey platform developed by Mobile Accord (www. geopoll.com).Results: The survey was completed over a period of 4 days. A total of 8,759 surveys were sent to mobile phone subscribers of whom 1,330 (15.2%) opted-in to complete the survey. A total of 492 (37.0% of those opted-in, 384 male and 108 female) people completed the survey. Lymphedema and hydrocele signs were reported by 20.9% (95% CI, 17.4-24.8) and 20.6% (95% CI, 16.6-25.0) of respondents, respectively. Majority of hydrocele patients (59.5%) and 46.6% of lymphedema patients reported having sought treatment. The proportion of patients reporting similar symptoms among friends and relatives was 66.0% and 70.9% for lymphedema and hydrocele, respectively. Conclusions:The findings suggest that mobile phone based surveys are a practical approach of undertaking morbidity surveys. While further surveys are needed to verify the findings, this approach can be expected to encourage identification of lymphedema and hydrocele morbidity at community level and provide evidence where further morbidity surveys are warranted.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Applying a mobile survey tool for assessing lymphatic filariasis morbidity in Mtwara Municipal Council of Tanzania

Mwingira¹,

Downs

Uisso³

et al. 2017

mHealth

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“…Patients were randomly selected from a recently developed morbidity database and examined by a physician to confirm diagnoses. All confirmed cases were invited to be interviewed (Supplementary Material).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…small (<~10 cm in circumference), medium (~10–~30 cm) and large (>~30 cm). For more details, refer to . Summaries of demographic data were produced using SPSS (version 21).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Situational analysis of lymphatic filariasis morbidity in Ahanta West District of Ghana

Stanton

Best

Cliffe

et al. 2015

Tropical Med Int Health

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Abstractobjectives Situational analysis of lymphatic filariasis (LF) morbidity and its management in Ahanta West, Ghana, to identify potential barrier to healthcare for LF patients.methods Lymphoedema and hydrocoele patients were identified by community health workers from a subset of villages, and were interviewed and participated in focus group discussions to determine their attitudes and practices towards managing their morbidity, and their perceived barriers to accessing care. Local health professionals were also interviewed to obtain their views on the availability of morbidity management services in the district.results Sixty-two patients (34 lymphoedema and 28 hydrocoeles) and 13 local health professionals were included in the study. Lymphoedema patients predominantly self-managed their conditions, which included washing with soap and water (61.8%), and exercising the affected area (52.9%). Almost 65% of patients had sought medical assistance at some stage, but support was generally limited to receiving tablets (91%). Local health professionals reported rarely seeing lymphoedema patients, citing stigma and lack of provisions to assist patients as a reason for this. Almost half of hydrocoele patients (44%) chose not to seek medical assistance despite the negative impact it had on their lives. Whilst surgery itself is free with national health insurance, 63% those who had not sought treatment stated that indirect costs of surgery (travel costs, loss of earnings, etc.) were the most prohibitive factor to seeking treatment.conclusions The information obtained from this study should now be used to guide future morbidity strategies in building a stronger relationship between the local health services and LF patients, to ultimately improve patients' physical, psychological and economic wellbeing.

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“…However, if we had applied the societal perspective for costing [24,25], the result would not have changed considerably because few items were not paid for in this survey. No volunteers [26] were mobilized and parents or community members were not participated in this survey because it was conducted at the school level. We used the same lifespan for capital items as in the reference case in the South Sudan [6].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cost implications of a nationwide survey of schistosomiasis and other intestinal helminthiases in Sudan

Elhag

Jin

Amin

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Background: It is vital to share details of concrete experiences of conducting a nationwide survey, so that the global health community could adapt it to expand geographic mapping programs, eventually contributing to the development of control and elimination strategies with limited resources. A nationwide survey of schistosomiasis and nine other intestinal helminthiases was conducted Objectives: We aimed to describe details of the key activities and components required for the nationwide survey of schistosomiasis and other intestinal helminthiases and to analyze its costs. Methods:We estimated financial and economic costs from the provider's perspective. Cash expenditures incurred to implement the survey were defined as financial costs. We took into account all of the resources invested in the survey for economic costs, including the components that were not paid for, such as vehicles and survey equipment provided by the Ministry of Health, Sudan and the opportunity costs of primary school teachers' time spent on the survey. We ran one-way sensitivity and probabilistic analyses using Monte-Carlo methods with 10,000 draws to examine the robustness of the primary analysis results.Results: A total of USD 1,465,902 and USD 1,516,238 was incurred for the financial and economic costs, respectively. The key cost drivers of the nationwide survey were personnel and transportation, for both financial and economic costs. Personnel and transportation accounted for around 64% and 18% of financial costs, respectively. Conclusions:The cost is expected to vary depending on the quantity and quality of existing laboratory facilities, equipment, and consumables, and the capability of laboratory technicians and sample collectors. Establishing central-level and independent supervision mechanisms to 3 ensure the quality of the survey is equally important. We expect the global health community to draw on this study when developing nationwide surveys of schistosomiasis and other intestinal helminthiases.

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Developing a community-led SMS reporting tool for the rapid assessment of lymphatic filariasis morbidity burden: case studies from Malawi and Ghana

Cited by 65 publications

References 30 publications

Applying a mobile survey tool for assessing lymphatic filariasis morbidity in Mtwara Municipal Council of Tanzania

Applying a mobile survey tool for assessing lymphatic filariasis morbidity in Mtwara Municipal Council of Tanzania

Situational analysis of lymphatic filariasis morbidity in Ahanta West District of Ghana

Cost implications of a nationwide survey of schistosomiasis and other intestinal helminthiases in Sudan

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