Abstract:
Introduction: Mozambique antiretroviral therapy
is a database used to monitor patients receiving
antiretroviral treatment (ART). This study's
objective was to evaluate the system for the
purpose to monitor patients receiving ART.
Methods: data from 287,052 patients who started
ART from January to December 2017 were verified,
and retention in care was assessed for 2018 in
Mozambique. The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention guidelines for evaluating public health
surveillance systems were used to conduct the
evaluation. Simplicity, flexibility, data quality,
representativeness and stability attributes were
evaluated.
Results:
a
total
of
93%
(266,880/287,052) of patients on ART were adults
≥15 years old, and 65% (186,677/287,052) were
female. The system was complex, it involved four
organisations and its management was online.
Data quality was moderate with 19%
(1,533,885/8,037,456) of empty variable fields,
0.04% (123/287,052) observations with birth date
later than the initial ART date, 0.2% (424/287,052)
and 23% (68,039/287,052) with initial ART date
and diagnosis date, later than the next ART pickup
date. Nationally, 19%(31/161) of the districts did
not have data in the information system. MozART
cover health facilities with electronic patient
tracking systems. Hence did not represent all
patients on ART. While it was not possible to add
variables of the electronic patient tracking, the
system was stable as neither data or server
interruptions were reported. Conclusion: the
system was useful, stable, with moderate data
quality, complex, not flexible and not
representative. We recommend to health facilities
and partners to develop and distribute procedures
for data validation and completeness and report
all patient tracking variables in the system.
