Development of a systematic method for assessing HIV-indicator data reporting in Kenya

Abstract

Background: In a bid to eradicate the HIV epidemic, Low-and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) have taken strides in strengthening monitoring and evaluation through building capacity in data collection and data use. As such, the District Health Information System Software version 2 (DHIS2) has been adopted by numerous countries in LMICs for purposes of monitoring and evaluating the progress made towards eradication of the epidemic. Nonetheless, despite a longstanding requirement to report HIV-indicator data from facilities into DHIS2 for many LMICs, few rigorous evaluations exist to evaluate performance of facilities at meeting completeness and timeliness reporting requirements for HIV-indicator data to DHIS2. Hence, the aim of this dissertation was to develop and apply a systematic method that incorporates the use of both quantitative and qualitative research approaches in assessing facility reporting performance over time (2011 to 2018), using completeness and timeliness facility reporting requirements to DHIS2. Methods: This dissertation was anchored on Design Science Research (DSR) methodology. A DSR process model proposed by Vaishnavi et al. was employed, and consisted of five steps (awareness of problem, suggestion, development, evaluation, and conclusion). The development step is key in design and development of the artifact and consisted of four sub-cycles in this dissertation with each applying different approaches to obtain the various expected outcomes. Results: A systematic method of assessing facility reporting performance resulted from the combination of four sub-cycles within the development step. This entailed systematic process of data cleaning (sub-cycle 1); application of the resultant clean dataset in evaluation of facility reporting performance (sub-cycle 2); conducting qualitative case study based on facility reporting performance results in sub-cycle 2 (sub-cycle 3); and development of facility reporting performance dashboard comprising visualizations using data and results in sub-cycle 1 and 2 (sub-cycle 4). Results in each of the sub-cycles also varied based on expected outcomes. Conclusions: The developed systematic method artifact in this dissertation can be of benefit to HIV monitoring and evaluation teams in ministries of health in LMICs as well as other relevant stakeholders.