Data value and care value in the practice of health systems

A case study in Uganda

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4594506
AutoresEleanor Hutchinson (0000-0002-9718-2407, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, autor correspondente), Susan Nayiga (0000-0002-1895-4035, Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration), Christine Nabirye (0000-0002-7724-9635, Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration), Lilian Taaka (Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration), Sarah G Staedke (0000-0003-2505-821X, University of London)
Ano2018
Volume211
Páginas123-130
Data de publicação2018-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Science & Medicine (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0277-9536 • E-ISSN: 1873-5347
EditoraElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.05.039
PMID29935402
OpenAlexW2804120122
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas9
Referências citadas26

In anthropology, interest in how values are created, maintained and changed has been reinvigorated. In this case study, we draw on this literature to interrogate concerns about the relationship between data collection and the delivery of patient care within global health. We followed a pilot study conducted in Kayunga, Uganda that aimed to improve the collection of health systems data in five public health centres. We undertook ethnographic research from July 2015 to September 2016 in health centres, at project workshops, meetings and training sessions. This included three months of observations by three fieldworkers; in-depth interviews with health workers (n = 15) and stakeholders (n = 5); and six focus group discussions with health workers. We observed that measurement, calculation and narrative practices could be assigned care-value or data-value and that the attempt to improve data collection within health facilities transferred 'data-value' into health centres with little consideration among project staff for its impact on care. We document acts of acquiescence and resistance to data-value by health workers. We also describe the rare moments when senior health workers reconciled these two forms of value, and care-value and data-value were enacted simultaneously. In contrast to many anthropological accounts, our analysis suggests that data-value and care-value are not necessarily conflicting. Actors seeking to make changes in health systems must, however, take into account local forms of value and devise health systems interventions that reinforce and enrich existing ethically driven practice

Acquiescence · Data collection · Ethnography · Focus group · Health care · Health promotion · Participant observation · Political science · Politics · Public health · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Computer Science · Medicine · Nursing · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies