A Trial of an Integrated E-diagnosis Assessment to Improve the Management of Childhood Illnesses in Burkina Faso
- Conditions
- IMCI GuidelinesChildhood Illnesses
- Interventions
- Other: integrated ediagnostic approach (IeDA)
- Registration Number
- NCT02341469
- Lead Sponsor
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
- Brief Summary
In 2010, one in six children in Burkina Faso died before the age of five, mainly due to lack of access to quality health care services. Most of these deaths could have been avoided through cost-effective interventions. Ensuring that sick children receive adequate care in a country where 80% of the population lives in rural areas requires improved accessibility and high quality primary health care services. The Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses strategy (IMCI) was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the 1990s and is an excellent way to improve the quality of country's child health services. However, in Burkina Faso IMCI suffers from a low level of adherence by health workers. According to a recent evaluation by the Ministry of Health (MoH), only 8.2% of children had benefited in 2012 from an consultation using IMCI guideline. Moreover, an analysis of children's records showed that only 15% of IMCI consultations were being correctly delivered and, for instance, only 34% of children with pneumonia who needed an antibiotic were prescribed the correct treatment. The obstacles to IMCI adoption in Burkina Faso are diverse and include inadequate training methods, shortage of material (papers, forms), lack of quality supervision by district executive teams, lack of integration between IMCI monitoring tools and the national health information system etc.
The Integrated eDiagnosis Approach (IeDA) aims to address the poor quality of child health services in Burkina Faso by increasing the level of adherence to IMCI guidelines. IeDA is an innovative strategy combining information and communication technologies (using the Registre Electronique des Consultations \[REC\], an electronic IMCI patient record designed by Terre des hommes, Tdh) and a quality improvement approach. The approach has been piloted over three years in two different districts in the north of Burkina Faso, Tougan and Séguénéga. This medium scaling-up demonstration project will combine implementation and research components with a goal to enable national scaleup.
Terre des hommes is in charge of the implementation of the project and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) will coordinate the research component of the study in partnership with Centre Muraz.
The primary hypothesis is that the Integrated eDiagnosis Approach will lead to improved adherence to IMCI guidelines and management of childhood illnesses in two regions (with a target of 75% of correct diagnoses and prescriptions).
- Detailed Description
Not available
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- COMPLETED
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 7200
Regions and Districts - The two regions Boucle du Mouhoune and Region du Nord were purposively chosen based on discussions with the MoH. Eight districts in these two regions will be included in the trial.
Health centres - Ten health centres in each district will be randomly selected and stratified so that, in each district, five health centres with fewer children aged 0-59 months than the district median and five health centres with more than the district median will be selected. The stratification reflects the variation in size between large and small health centres.
Patients - Children aged under five years old who attend the health centre for consultation at the day of the visit of the researchers.
Health centres - All health centres not selected in the study will be excluded from the evaluation of the trial, but will still receive the intervention.
Patients - All children not present during the day of the visit of the researchers will be excluded. All patients above five years old will be excluded.
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- CROSSOVER
- Arm && Interventions
Group Intervention Description integrated ediagnostic approach integrated ediagnostic approach (IeDA) -
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Adherence to IMCI guidelines Three years Clinical observations will be conducted for children presenting at primary healthcare centres to determine the level of adherence to IMCI guidelines. This will be done at each step of the stepped-wedge trial, including at a baseline step (i.e. before any clusters are in the intervention phase).
Correct disease classification and prescription Three years Following the clinical observation of each child, the child will be re-consulted by study staff to determine the correct disease classification(s) and prescription(s). A binary variable will be created for the consultation based on whether the classification(s) and prescription(s) decided by the healthcare worker are in agreement with those of our study staff.This will be done at each step of the stepped-wedge trial, including at a baseline step (i.e. before any clusters are in the intervention phase).
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Correct identification of danger signs Three years Correct classification of children Three years Prescription of the correct medicine Three years Correct referral or hospitalisation Three years Correct counselling delivered to child carer Three years
Trial Locations
- Locations (1)
Centre Muraz
🇧🇫Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso