Evaluation of the Mozambique Antiretroviral Therapy (MozART) database as an antiretroviral therapy patient surveillance system, 2017-2018

Abstract

Introduction Mozambique antiretroviral therapy is a database used to monitor patients receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART). This study's objective was to evaluate the system for the purpose to monitor patients receiving ART. Methods data from 287,052 patients who started ART from January to December 2017 were verified, and retention in care was assessed for 2018 in Mozambique. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for evaluating public health surveillance systems were used to conduct the evaluation. Simplicity, flexibility, data quality, representativeness and stability attributes were evaluated. Results a total of 93% (266,880/287,052) of patients on ART were adults ≥15 years old, and 65% (186,677/287,052) were female. The system was complex, it involved four organisations and its management was online. Data quality was moderate with 19% (1,533,885/8,037,456) of empty variable fields, 0.04% (123/287,052) observations with birth date later than the initial ART date, 0.2% (424/287,052) and 23% (68,039/287,052) with initial ART date and diagnosis date, later than the next ART pickup date. Nationally, 19%(31/161) of the districts did not have data in the information system. MozART cover health facilities with electronic patient tracking systems. Hence did not represent all patients on ART. While it was not possible to add variables of the electronic patient tracking, the system was stable as neither data or server interruptions were reported. Conclusion the system was useful, stable, with moderate data quality, complex, not flexible and not representative. We recommend to health facilities and partners to develop and distribute procedures for data validation and completeness and report all patient tracking variables in the system.

Cost‐Effectiveness and Budget Impact Analysis of the Implementation of Differentiated Service Delivery Models for HIV Treatment in Mozambique: a Modelling Study

“…We applied an uncontrolled interrupted time series design to compare the outcome before and after implementation of the DSDMs nationwide, using data from all clients enrolled in HIV treatment from January 2016 to June 2020 (i.e. follow‐up data through June 2021) in health facilities using the electronic patient tracking system, which feeds the Mozambique Antiretroviral Therapy (MozART) database [ 22 ].…”