Symptom monitoring of childhood illnesses and referrals: A pilot study on the feasibility of a mobile phone-based system as a disease surveillance tool in a rural health district of Ghana

Abstract

Despite the potential of mobile technology in improving health systems, its use as a surveillance tool is still unclear. This study aimed to examine the feasibility of a mobile phone-based system as a surveillance tool for identifying common symptoms of childhood illnesses. We conducted a community-based cross-sectional study involving caregivers (n = 161) of children under 5 years. The system was designed to assess disease symptoms of the sick children and provide health advice to caregivers regarding what to do with the sick child. The capacity of the system to correctly assess the disease symptoms of sick children, and provide referral was examined using Kappa statistics. Of the 126 calls recorded by the system, 52 (41.3%) were valid with complete data. The level of agreement between the system and clinicians’ report with respect to common symptoms of childhood illnesses varied: fever (kappa = 0.70, p < 0.001); vomiting (kappa = 0.46, p < 0.002); diarrhoea (kappa = 0.44, p < 0.007); and cough (kappa = 0.37, p < 0.0129). An acceptable level of symptom reliability was achieved by the system. The results suggest that the system can be used as a first line surveillance tool for identifying potential childhood disease outbreaks based on symptom reports.