Routine health information utilization and associated factors among health care professionals working at public health institution in North Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

BackgroundRoutine health information systems (RHIS) are vital for the acquisition of data for health sector planning, monitoring, and evaluation. However, in developing countries the insufficient quality of the data produced by RHIS limits their usefulness in decision-making. As routine health information utilization is still low in Ethiopia, this study aimed to assess the magnitude of routine health data utilization and associated factors among health care professionals in some public health institutions in North Gondar, northwest Ethiopia.MethodsAn institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from March to April2017, at public health institutions of North Gondar Zone, northwest Ethiopia. A total of 720 health care professionals were selected from public health institutions using the multi-stage sampling technique. Data were collected using a structured self-administered questionnaire and an observational checklist, cleaned, coded, and entered into Epi-info version 3.5.3 and transferred into SPSS version 20 for further statistical analysis. In the multiple logistic regression analysis, a less than 0.05 P-vale was considered statistically significant.ResultIn this study, the level of good routine health information utilization among health professionals was 78.5% (95% CI: 73.2%, 84.3%). According to the multivariable logistic regression analysis, sex (AOR = 2.19, 95% CI: 1.47, 3.27), type of institution (AOR = 3.57, 95% CI: 2.39, 5.32), standard indicators (AOR = 3.28, 95% CI: 1.90, 5.65), data analysis skills (AOR = 1.90, 95% CI: 1.12, 3.23), and good governance (AOR = 1.97, 95% CI: 1.31, 2.95), were found significantly associated with a good level of health information utilization.ConclusionOver three-fourths of the health care professionals working at public health institutions of North Gondar utilized health information better than the respondents in previous studies. Sex, type of institution, standard indicators, data analysis skills, and governance were factors related to routine health information utilization. Therefore, standard indicators, data analysis skills and good governance are highly recommended for improving routine health data utilization of health care professionals working at public health institutions.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-018-3498-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Utilization of routine health information and associated factors among health workers in Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia

“…Similarly, the finding in this study is higher than earlier reports in Africa like 38% in Cote D'Ivoire [24], 53% in South Africa [25]. In contrast to the finding was lower than a study conducted in North Gondar zone in Amhara region which was 78.5% [18]. This may be due to the higher proportion of supervision (57.6% in the study conducted in North Gondar zone while it was 46.9% in the current study) and feedbacks (53.8% in study conducted in North Gondar zone while it was 46.7% in the current study).…”

“…The questionnaire contains; socio-demographic part, level of routine health information use part, technical factors part, facility related factors part and individual behavioral factors part. Utilization of routine health information was assessed using ten items for which routine health information was utilized (use of routine health information for monitoring day to day health service activities, displaying updated information, developing weekly plan, service delivery improvement, drug procurement, resource mobilization, detecting the cause of health problem in the community, facilitating community mobilization, prediction of outbreaks, and disease prioritization) [18]. These were measured using items of 5-point Likert scale, 1 denoting never, 2 seldom, 3 sometimes, 4 often and 5 denoting almost always.…”

“…The sample size for the second objective was determined using double population proportion formula with the assumptions of 95% CI, 5% margin of error, 80% power and unexposed to exposed ratio of 2.34 [18] and the sample size become 306. The final sample size becomes 490.…”

Routine Health Information System Utilization for Evidence-Based Decision Making in Amhara National Regional State, Northwest Ethiopia: a multi-level analysis.

“…The study indicated that the overall proportion of information-use for evidence-based decision making among department heads was very low. The nding was by far below the result reported from North Gondar and Hadiya zone, Ethiopia where the level of information-use for evidence-based decision making was 78.5% (12) and 69.3% (13), respectively. Also, it was below the study done in South Africa (34).…”

“…Hence, the country has made immense efforts through the information revolution agenda since 2017 to enhance the utilization of routine health information for evidence-based decisions at lower levels of the healthcare system. The ndings of previous studies indicated that the use of routine health information for decision making varied from place to place but failed to account for individual and organizational level variations that affect the enhanced use of routine health information (12,13,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20). Failing to capture the variations at different level did not provide appropriate parameters estimates (21,22).…”