Table 2.
Characteristics of surveillance systems
| HDSS name | Country | Frequency of rounds | Information collected relevant to birth outcomes | Data collector | Acceptable respondent | Other information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Africa Centre | South Africa | Three update rounds a year | All births, deaths, marriages and migrations, socio-economics, biometrics, HIV status and sexual behaviour | Senior household member | The data are stored in a single Microsoft SQL server database | |
| Agincourt | South Africa | One annual round | Migration, death, maternal history, pregnancy and outcome surveillance | Four teams, one supervisor, eight fieldworkers | Household head, spouse or adult member in the house | The database is managed using Microsoft SQL servers |
| Ballabgarh | India | (Monthly) Pregnancy, gestational age, stillbirth outcomes and birthweight | Migration, antenatal care, immunization, family planning, morbidity and verbal autopsy | The database is handled in DBASE III and Microsoft SQL | ||
| Bandim | Guinea-Bissau | Monthly in the urban site and biannually in the rural site | Vaccination and vitamin A supplementation | Fieldworkers | ||
| Butajira | Ethiopia | (Quarterly) pregnancy surveillance: each household has been visited once per month from 1987 to 1999 and four times in year since 1999 | Child health, mortality patterns, health systems and financing, verbal autopsy, malaria, nutrition status and domestic violence | 21 Data collectors and 7 supervisors, 2 field coordinators | Household head/spouse and adult member of the family | The data are entered into the Household Registration System 2 (HRS2) and stored on the FoxPro server |
| Dabat | Ethiopia | (Biannually) pregnancy, gestational age, delivery and stillbirth outcomes | Births, verbal autopsy, migrations, pregnancies and pregnancy outcomes | Adult women or Mothers of the households | Data are collected on paper and entered using Dabat database Household Registration System 2 | |
| Dodowa | Ghana | (Biannually) pregnancy, delivery, stillbirth outcomes, birthweight | Verbal autopsy, migration and pregnancy, spatial data and outcome surveillance | The data are entered into the Household Registration System 2 and store on the Microsoft SQL server | ||
| Farfenni | Gambia | (Quarterly) pregnancy, birthweight and neonatal morbidity | Verbal autopsy, vaccination, migration, pregnancy registration and outcome and spatial data | The data are entered into the Household Registration System 2 and store on the Microsoft SQL server | ||
| Gilgel Gibe | Ethiopia | Biannual population update, pregnancy outcome, death, migration, martial change among women, pregnancy observation. Yearly updates for education, marital status and occupation | Maternal and child health, verbal autopsy | Men and women who completed at least secondary education | Household head, spouse or adult member in the house | Household Registration System 2 database is used for data entry. Data are collection is paper-based and planned to be migrated to OpenHDSS. The HDSS site is owned and run by Jimma University |
| Ifakara | Tanzania | Three update rounds a year. With four months for each round starting at January, May and September | Pregnancies, births deaths | |||
| Iganga-Mayuge | Uganda | Two update rounds per year with a round lasting about 2-3 months | Births, deaths, migrations, pregnancy registration and outcome surveillance, vaccination, socio-economic characteristics and verbal autopsy | Research assistants, scouts, Village Health Teams (VHT) members | Adult member of the household | The data are collected using paper-based system and is entered into the Household Registration System 2 and stored on the MySQL server. The site will migrate to OpenHDSS in 2017 |
| Karonga | Malawi | Births and deaths are reported monthly and in-and-out migration is collected annually | Migration, vaccination, verbal autopsy | Fieldworkers | Local “key informants” who may not be a member of that household or household member | Data are collected on paper and I entered into a MS Access database |
| Kaya | Burkina Faso | (Biannually) pregnancy and stillbirth outcomes | Births, verbal autopsy, marriage, migration, pregnancies and morbidity | Member of the household | Data are collected using personal digital assistants using the CSPro software and is saved on the MySQL–PHP database | |
| Kersa | Ethiopia | (Quarterly) Pregnancy, gestational age, delivery, stillbirth outcomes, birthweight information, neonatal and under-five morbidity surveillance | Maternal and child health and verbal autopsy | Preferably head of the household, mother, if not children in the house who are older than 15 years | Data are collected using paper, consistency and completeness check is done by resident supervisors and field coordinators. Once completed entered in HRS 2 software and Hardcopy archived | |
| Kilifi | Kenya | (Three times per year) pregnancy, delivery, stillbirth outcomes, maternal outcomes | Migration, verbal autopsy, births, pregnancy surveillance and vaccination | The data are managed in a central server database which is specified in FileMaker Pro version 11 | ||
| Kilte Awulaelo | Ethiopia | (Biannually) Pregnancy, gestational age, delivery and stillbirth outcomes | ||||
| Kintampo | Ghana | (Biannually) pregnancy and stillbirth outcomes | Micronutrient initiatives | |||
| Kombewa | Kenya | Demographic updates and surveillance is done twice a year (births, deaths and pregnancy outcomes) | Birth registration, verbal autopsy, migration, pregnancy surveillance and morbidity | Village team reporters | Electronic data collection with PDAs/notebook PCs and the data are stored in the MySQL database | |
| Kyamulimbwa | Uganda | Annual census, supplemented by real-time reporting from village health workers | Pregnancy and outcomes, births and deaths | Census team, village recorders | Either the head of household or women of reproductive age | Data are collected directly onto ultra-mobile personal computers. Pregnancy registration using mobile phone app (DoForm) by village health workers |
| Mbita | Kenya | Every 3 months in Mbita and 4 months in Kwale | Vaccination, nutritional status of children, pregnancy surveillance (update pregnancy status, outcome, antenatal care and place of deliver), migration | Electronic data collection with PDAs and the data are stored in the MySQL database | ||
| Nairobi | Kenya | Every 4 months | Pregnancy registration, verbal autopsy pregnancy outcomes, migrations, spatial data and vaccines | Team of trained fieldworkers from the HDSS area with a minimal of O level certificate of education. VAs are conducted by team supervisors with a minimum of Bachelor’s degree in Social sciences | Household head or other adult member of household | Data were collected using paper questionnaires until June 2015. Electronic data collection since July 2015 |
| Nanoro | Burkina Faso | Three times a year (every four months) follow-up surveys are conducted | Births, verbal autopsy migrations, pregnancies and pregnancy outcomes, vaccination, socio-economic characteristics and verbal autopsy | Data are collected on paper and entered in the Household Registration System 2 | ||
| Navrongo | Ghana | (Three times a year) Pregnancy, stillbirth outcomes, birthweight and neonatal morbidity | Reproductive health, vaccination, impact assessment | |||
| Nouna | Burkina Faso | Data are collected on pocket PCs and stored on the SQL server pro | ||||
| Ouagadougou | Burkina Faso | One round every 10 months | Pregnancy registration, deaths, pregnancy outcomes, migrations, spatial data and vaccines | Adult member of the household | Data are collected on pocket PCs and stored on the MySQL server pro | |
| Puworejo | Indonesia | Reproductive health and verbal autopsy | ||||
| Rakai | Uganda | (Started 2015) Pregnancy surveillance and stillbirth outcomes | Pregnancy and outcome surveillance, verbal autopsy, migration (of the mother), HIV status and HIV care of the mother, birth history information (including family planning use) and socio-economic status | Research assistantsN (2015 | 1. Migration and socio-economic status: any eligible household member 2. Verbal autopsy: any closest caregiver 3. Pregnancy outcomes, birth history, HIV status: the woman | Electronic data collection using laptops and stored in SQL database |
| Rufiji | Tanzania | (Three times a year) Pregnancy, stillbirth outcomes, birthweight and neonatal morbidity and maternal deaths | Pregnancy and outcome surveillance, verbal autopsy, migration and socio-economic status | Site uses OpenHDSS platform as the database since 2012 | ||
| Siaya | Kenya | (Three times a year) Pregnancy outcomes, birthweight and neonatal morbidity and maternal deaths | Migration, verbal autopsy and pregnancy surveillance | Electronic data collection with PDAs/Notebook PCs using the mobile Household Registration System and stored on the MySQL database | ||
| Taabo | Côte d’Ivoire | Three times a year (every four months | Births, pregnancies (probable date of conception, gestational age, course of pregnancy), migrations, epidemiology and verbal autopsy | 12 Permanent enumerators and 6 supervisors | Adult member of household | The data are entered into the Household Registration System 2 and store on the MySQL server |
| Vadu | India | Biannually, births, deaths, marriages, migrations and pregnancy. Every reported death is subjected to a verbal autopsy | Reproductive health, telemedicine, spatial data and verbal autopsy | 12 Field research assistants | Adult member of the household who can give information | Electronic data capture on tablets using android application |
The characteristics of the surveillance systems of the 31 Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites located in 13 countries for the period (2009–2014)