Identifying Quality Constraints of Inpatient Data in U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative Partner Countries

Identifying Quality Constraints of Inpatient Data in U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative Partner Countries
Citation: Measure Malaria. (2023). Identifying quality constraints of inpatient data in U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative partner countries: Literature review synthesis. Chapel Hill, NC, USA: PMI Measure Malaria, University of North Carolina.
Abstract: Quality inpatient data, specifically for severe malaria and malaria mortality, are essential for understanding the true burden of the disease in malaria endemic countries and for enabling decision makers to provide effective and contextual responses to the gaps and challenges observed in their countries. Inconsistencies in reporting practices and interpretation of cases, including misclassification, overestimation, and underreporting, are among observed challenges in the quality of inpatient data in U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) Measure Malaria (PMM) countries. A review of the published and grey literature and key informant interviews with PMM surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation (SME) advisors and national malaria control program (NMCP) stakeholders informed the findings presented in this synthesis. The literature suggests that inpatient malaria data are not consistently and routinely reported, thereby complicating the estimation of malaria trends and use in making programmatic decisions. Instead, inpatient data may be used to understand the clinical manifestations of severe malaria, to study case management and quality of care, and to examine the causes of hospital deaths and the quality of hospital cause of death data. Interviews with PMM SME advisors and country stakeholders also confirm the challenges in the quality of inpatient data, which they attribute to diverging reporting practices and differences in reported data, especially in the data coming from a lower level compared to the data reported at the national level.
Shortname: TR-23-517 PMM
Author(s): PMI Measure Malaria
Year: 2023
Language: English