DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE PROJECT

1 Users found this project useful

Influence of Health Information System Use on Disease Reporting Accuracy in Nigerian Public Health Facilities

Abstract

Accurate disease reporting is essential for effective public health surveillance, disease control, outbreak preparedness, resource allocation, and evidence-based decision-making. Health information systems provide mechanisms for collecting, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and retrieving health information generated within healthcare facilities. Health information system use refers to the extent to which healthcare workers and health information personnel utilize electronic or digital systems for recording, processing, managing, and reporting patient and disease-related information. Disease reporting accuracy refers to the degree to which reported disease information correctly reflects the actual cases identified and documented within a healthcare facility, without substantial errors, omissions, duplication, or incorrect classification. Public health facilities in Nigeria generate substantial amounts of information required for routine disease surveillance and public health response. However, challenges such as inadequate information technology infrastructure, poor system usability, limited user training, unreliable electricity and internet connectivity, incomplete data entry, inconsistent reporting procedures, and technical difficulties may affect the quality and accuracy of disease reports. Effective use of health information systems may improve data standardization, reduce transcription errors, facilitate data validation, improve record retrieval, and support timely submission of complete and accurate disease reports. Against this background, this study investigates the influence of health information system use on disease reporting accuracy in Nigerian public health facilities. The study is anchored on the Health Information Systems Success Model, the Technology Acceptance Model, and Donabedian's Structure-Process-Outcome Model. The Health Information Systems Success Model emphasizes system quality, information quality, system use, user satisfaction, and organizational benefits as important determinants of health information system effectiveness. The Technology Acceptance Model explains technology use through perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Donabedian's Model identifies healthcare infrastructure, technology, human resources, and organizational structures as factors that influence healthcare processes and outcomes. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how the use of health information systems may influence disease reporting accuracy in Nigerian public health facilities. The study will adopt a quantitative cross-sectional research design. Data will be collected from selected Nigerian public health facilities using structured questionnaires administered to healthcare workers and health information personnel, health information system assessment checklists, disease-reporting registers, electronic reporting records, surveillance reports, data-quality assessment tools, and relevant facility documents. A multistage sampling technique will be employed to select states, local government areas, public hospitals, primary healthcare centres, and eligible healthcare workers involved in health information management and disease reporting. Health information system use will be assessed using indicators such as frequency of system use, extent of electronic data entry, regularity of system access, use of digital reporting platforms, completeness of electronic records, system usability, availability of technical support, user training, availability of functional hardware, and consistency of system use for disease reporting. Disease reporting accuracy will be assessed using indicators such as agreement between source records and submitted reports, correctness of disease classification, completeness of reported cases, absence of duplicate entries, consistency of reported figures, correctness of patient and case information, accuracy of reporting periods, and error rates identified through data-quality audits. Where possible, facility source documents will be compared with submitted disease reports to objectively assess reporting accuracy. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize health information system use and disease-reporting accuracy. Inferential statistical techniques, including chi-square tests, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis, will be used to determine the influence of health information system use on disease reporting accuracy. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability of research instruments, model assumptions, goodness of fit, multicollinearity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that effective and consistent use of health information systems has a significant positive influence on disease reporting accuracy in Nigerian public health facilities. Facilities where healthcare workers regularly and appropriately use functional health information systems are expected to demonstrate higher levels of reporting accuracy than facilities where systems are poorly utilized or inconsistently applied. Digital systems may improve the standardization of data entry, facilitate automated validation, reduce manual transcription errors, improve record retrieval, and support more consistent reporting procedures. Effective system use may also strengthen the ability of health information personnel to identify discrepancies before reports are submitted and improve the overall quality of disease surveillance data. Conversely, inadequate system use may result in incomplete records, incorrect data entry, duplication, inconsistent reporting, and discrepancies between facility source documents and submitted reports. However, system use alone may not fully determine reporting accuracy because accuracy also depends on healthcare worker knowledge, data-entry skills, reporting guidelines, supervision, workload, data-quality procedures, system design, infrastructure, and availability of reliable source records. Therefore, strengthening health information system use should be accompanied by appropriate training, supervision, and data-quality assurance mechanisms. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on health information systems, disease reporting accuracy, digital health, health informatics, epidemiology, disease surveillance, health information management, and public health in Nigeria by providing empirical evidence on the relationship between health information system use and the quality of disease-reporting data. The findings will provide useful information to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, state ministries of health, state epidemiology units, health information management departments, public health facilities, healthcare administrators, development partners, and policymakers regarding strategies for improving disease-reporting systems. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for strengthening health information system infrastructure, improving healthcare worker training, enhancing system usability, strengthening data validation and quality-assurance procedures, improving technical support, ensuring reliable electricity and connectivity, strengthening supervision, and promoting consistent use of digital health information systems for accurate disease reporting across Nigerian public health facilities.

Keywords: Health information system use, disease reporting accuracy, Nigerian public health facilities, health informatics, digital health, disease surveillance, health information management, data quality, disease reporting, public health, electronic health records, epidemiology.