Assessing Quality of Non-communicable Disease Data in Kenya- a Case Study of Medicines Sans Frontier Project in Kibera

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to assess the quality of Non communicable disease data. The assessment utilized secondary data collected by the Non-communicable disease program and stored in the ‘Non communicable disease database’. The study used a crosssectional study design to answer to its study objectives. This study used quantitative data. Data on age, sex, type of Non-communicable disease, creatinine result counts and date of enrolment into Non-communicable disease programme was extracted. Document review, especially patient files was used to allow for verification of information. Descriptive analysis was the main analysis. The assessment focused on three aspects of data quality; data completeness, data timeliness and data validity. The findings of the study revealed that there were data quality gaps in the Noncommunicable disease data. These gaps included; discrepancies in data completeness and data timeliness. The database had 4893 individual patient records entered into it with 1886 of those having been entered before the beginning of the year 2012. More than 40% of the total 4893 records entered in the ‘Non communicable diseases database’, had data incompleteness and data timeliness gaps. Data validity was the only data quality principle that passed the test of good quality data. Based on the findings of the study, assessment concluded that the NCD data at Medicines Sans Frontiers project was not of good quality. The study recommends a systematic review of the programmatic data collection system to address data quality gaps identified in the study.