Measuring population health

Costs of alternative survey approaches in the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance System in rural Burkina Faso

Bibliographic Data

ID19530662
AuthorsHenrike Lietz (Heidelberg University), Moustapha Lingani (Centre de Recherche en Santé de Nouna), Ali Sié (0000-0002-3959-2520, Centre de Recherche en Santé de Nouna), Rainer Sauerborn (0000-0002-3201-4058, Heidelberg University), Aurélia Souares (0000-0002-3984-5866, Heidelberg University, corresponding author), Yesim Tozan (0000-0001-8997-8897, Heidelberg University, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume8
Issue1
Pages28330
Publication date2015-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobal Health Action (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1654-9716 • E-ISSN: 1654-9880
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3402/gha.v8.28330
PMID26257048
OpenAlexW2105953664
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited10

BACKGROUND: There are more than 40 Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) sites in 19 different countries. The running costs of HDSS sites are high. The financing of HDSS activities is of major importance, and adding external health surveys to the HDSS is challenging. To investigate the ways of improving data quality and collection efficiency in the Nouna HDSS in Burkina Faso, the stand-alone data collection activities of the HDSS and the Household Morbidity Survey (HMS) were integrated, and the paper-based questionnaires were consolidated into a single tablet-based questionnaire, the Comprehensive Disease Assessment (CDA). OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study are to estimate and compare the implementation costs of the two different survey approaches for measuring population health. DESIGN: All financial costs of stand-alone (HDSS and HMS) and integrated (CDA) surveys were estimated from the perspective of the implementing agency. Fixed and variable costs of survey implementation and key cost drivers were identified. The costs per household visit were calculated for both survey approaches. RESULTS: While fixed costs of survey implementation were similar for the two survey approaches, there were considerable variations in variable costs, resulting in an estimated annual cost saving of about US$45,000 under the integrated survey approach. This was primarily because the costs of data management for the tablet-based CDA survey were considerably lower than for the paper-based stand-alone surveys. The cost per household visit from the integrated survey approach was US$21 compared with US$25 from the stand-alone surveys for collecting the same amount of information from 10,000 HDSS households. CONCLUSIONS: The CDA tablet-based survey method appears to be feasible and efficient for collecting health and demographic data in the Nouna HDSS in rural Burkina Faso. The possibility of using the tablet-based data collection platform to improve the quality of population health data requires further exploration

Developing country · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Geography · Population · Public health · Public health surveillance · Socioeconomics · Data-Driven Disease Surveillance · Global Maternal and Child Health · Medicine · Mobile Health and mHealth Applications · Nursing

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