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Collecting mortality data via mobile phone surveys: A non-inferiority randomized trial in Malawi

Despite the urgent need for timely mortality data in low-income and lower-middle-income countries, mobile phone surveys rarely include questions about recent deaths. Such questions might a) be too sensitive, b) take too long to ask and/or c) generate unreliable data. We assessed the feasibility of m...

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Autores principales: Chasukwa, Michael, Choko, Augustine T., Muthema, Funny, Nkhalamba, Mathero M., Saikolo, Jacob, Tlhajoane, Malebogo, Reniers, Georges, Dulani, Boniface, Helleringer, Stéphane
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10021539/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36962430
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000852
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author Chasukwa, Michael
Choko, Augustine T.
Muthema, Funny
Nkhalamba, Mathero M.
Saikolo, Jacob
Tlhajoane, Malebogo
Reniers, Georges
Dulani, Boniface
Helleringer, Stéphane
author_facet Chasukwa, Michael
Choko, Augustine T.
Muthema, Funny
Nkhalamba, Mathero M.
Saikolo, Jacob
Tlhajoane, Malebogo
Reniers, Georges
Dulani, Boniface
Helleringer, Stéphane
author_sort Chasukwa, Michael
collection PubMed
description Despite the urgent need for timely mortality data in low-income and lower-middle-income countries, mobile phone surveys rarely include questions about recent deaths. Such questions might a) be too sensitive, b) take too long to ask and/or c) generate unreliable data. We assessed the feasibility of mortality data collection using mobile phone surveys in Malawi. We conducted a non-inferiority trial among a random sample of mobile phone users. Participants were allocated to an interview about their recent economic activity or recent deaths in their family. In the group that was asked mortality-related questions, half of the respondents completed an abridged questionnaire, focused on information necessary to calculate recent mortality rates, whereas the other half completed an extended questionnaire that also included questions about symptoms and healthcare. The primary trial outcome was the cooperation rate, i.e., the number of completed interviews divided by the number of mobile subscribers invited to participate. Secondary outcomes included self-reports of negative feelings and stated intentions to participate in future interviews. We called more than 7,000 unique numbers and reached 3,054 mobile subscribers. In total, 1,683 mobile users were invited to participate. The difference in cooperation rates between those asked to complete a mortality-related interview and those asked to answer questions about economic activity was 0.9 percentage points (95% CI = -2.3, 4.1), which satisfied the non-inferiority criterion. The mortality questionnaire was non-inferior to the economic questionnaire on all secondary outcomes. Collecting mortality data required 2 to 4 additional minutes per reported death, depending on the inclusion of questions about symptoms and healthcare. More than half of recent deaths elicited during mobile phone interviews had not been registered with the National Registration Bureau. Including mortality-related questions in mobile phone surveys is feasible. It might help strengthen the surveillance of mortality in countries with deficient civil registration systems. Registration: AEA RCT Registry, #0008065 (14 September 2021).
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spelling pubmed-100215392023-03-17 Collecting mortality data via mobile phone surveys: A non-inferiority randomized trial in Malawi Chasukwa, Michael Choko, Augustine T. Muthema, Funny Nkhalamba, Mathero M. Saikolo, Jacob Tlhajoane, Malebogo Reniers, Georges Dulani, Boniface Helleringer, Stéphane PLOS Glob Public Health Research Article Despite the urgent need for timely mortality data in low-income and lower-middle-income countries, mobile phone surveys rarely include questions about recent deaths. Such questions might a) be too sensitive, b) take too long to ask and/or c) generate unreliable data. We assessed the feasibility of mortality data collection using mobile phone surveys in Malawi. We conducted a non-inferiority trial among a random sample of mobile phone users. Participants were allocated to an interview about their recent economic activity or recent deaths in their family. In the group that was asked mortality-related questions, half of the respondents completed an abridged questionnaire, focused on information necessary to calculate recent mortality rates, whereas the other half completed an extended questionnaire that also included questions about symptoms and healthcare. The primary trial outcome was the cooperation rate, i.e., the number of completed interviews divided by the number of mobile subscribers invited to participate. Secondary outcomes included self-reports of negative feelings and stated intentions to participate in future interviews. We called more than 7,000 unique numbers and reached 3,054 mobile subscribers. In total, 1,683 mobile users were invited to participate. The difference in cooperation rates between those asked to complete a mortality-related interview and those asked to answer questions about economic activity was 0.9 percentage points (95% CI = -2.3, 4.1), which satisfied the non-inferiority criterion. The mortality questionnaire was non-inferior to the economic questionnaire on all secondary outcomes. Collecting mortality data required 2 to 4 additional minutes per reported death, depending on the inclusion of questions about symptoms and healthcare. More than half of recent deaths elicited during mobile phone interviews had not been registered with the National Registration Bureau. Including mortality-related questions in mobile phone surveys is feasible. It might help strengthen the surveillance of mortality in countries with deficient civil registration systems. Registration: AEA RCT Registry, #0008065 (14 September 2021). Public Library of Science 2022-08-11 /pmc/articles/PMC10021539/ /pubmed/36962430 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000852 Text en © 2022 Chasukwa et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Chasukwa, Michael
Choko, Augustine T.
Muthema, Funny
Nkhalamba, Mathero M.
Saikolo, Jacob
Tlhajoane, Malebogo
Reniers, Georges
Dulani, Boniface
Helleringer, Stéphane
Collecting mortality data via mobile phone surveys: A non-inferiority randomized trial in Malawi
title Collecting mortality data via mobile phone surveys: A non-inferiority randomized trial in Malawi
title_full Collecting mortality data via mobile phone surveys: A non-inferiority randomized trial in Malawi
title_fullStr Collecting mortality data via mobile phone surveys: A non-inferiority randomized trial in Malawi
title_full_unstemmed Collecting mortality data via mobile phone surveys: A non-inferiority randomized trial in Malawi
title_short Collecting mortality data via mobile phone surveys: A non-inferiority randomized trial in Malawi
title_sort collecting mortality data via mobile phone surveys: a non-inferiority randomized trial in malawi
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10021539/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36962430
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000852
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