Mwingira Upendo J, Downs Philip, Uisso Cecilia, Chikawe Maria, Sauvage-Mar Matthieu, Malecela Mwelecele N, Crowley Kathryn, Ngondi Jeremiah M
Neglected Tropical Disease Control Secretariat, MoHCDGEC, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
National Institute for Medical Research, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Mhealth. 2017 Mar 15;3:8. doi: 10.21037/mhealth.2017.03.01. eCollection 2017.
A number of methods have been used to estimate lymphatic filariasis (LF) morbidity, including: routine programmatic data, cluster random surveys and the "town crier" method. Currently, few accurate data exist on the global LF morbidity burden in Tanzania. We aimed to estimate prevalence of lymphedema and hydrocele in Mtwara Municipal Council using mobile phone based survey.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted among adults of Mtwara Municipal council with access to mobile phones. A sample size of at least 384 completed surveys was required to estimate prevalence of lymphedema (both males and females) and hydrocele (males only) morbidity of 50% within a 5% error margin given a 5% level of significance and 95% confidence level. Eligible mobile phone users received a short message text (SMS) requesting consent to participate in the survey. A total of 10 questions were administered via interactive SMS through the GeoPoll, a survey platform developed by Mobile Accord (www.geopoll.com).
The survey was completed over a period of 4 days. A total of 8,759 surveys were sent to mobile phone subscribers of whom 1,330 (15.2%) opted-in to complete the survey. A total of 492 (37.0% of those opted-in, 384 male and 108 female) people completed the survey. Lymphedema and hydrocele signs were reported by 20.9% (95% CI, 17.4-24.8) and 20.6% (95% CI, 16.6-25.0) of respondents, respectively. Majority of hydrocele patients (59.5%) and 46.6% of lymphedema patients reported having sought treatment. The proportion of patients reporting similar symptoms among friends and relatives was 66.0% and 70.9% for lymphedema and hydrocele, respectively.
The findings suggest that mobile phone based surveys are a practical approach of undertaking morbidity surveys. While further surveys are needed to verify the findings, this approach can be expected to encourage identification of lymphedema and hydrocele morbidity at community level and provide evidence where further morbidity surveys are warranted.
已经采用了多种方法来估计淋巴丝虫病（LF）的发病率，包括：常规规划数据、整群随机调查和“大声疾呼”法。目前，关于坦桑尼亚全球LF发病负担的准确数据很少。我们旨在通过基于手机的调查来估计姆特瓦拉市议会中淋巴水肿和鞘膜积液的患病率。
对姆特瓦拉市议会中能够使用手机的成年人进行了一项横断面调查。在5%的显著性水平和95%的置信水平下，要在5%的误差范围内估计淋巴水肿（男性和女性）和鞘膜积液（仅男性）发病率为50%，需要至少384份完整的调查问卷。符合条件的手机用户收到一条短信文本（SMS），请求其同意参与调查。通过由Mobile Accord（www.geopoll.com）开发的调查平台GeoPoll，通过交互式短信总共提出了10个问题。
调查在4天内完成。总共向手机用户发送了8759份调查问卷，其中1330人（15.2%）选择参与调查。共有492人（占选择参与调查者的37.0%，男性384人，女性108人）完成了调查。分别有20.9%（95%可信区间，17.4 - 24.8）和20.6%（95%可信区间，16.6 - 25.）的受访者报告有淋巴水肿和鞘膜积液体征。大多数鞘膜积液患者（59.5%）和46.6%的淋巴水肿患者报告曾寻求治疗。淋巴水肿和鞘膜积液患者中分别有66.0%和70.9%报告在朋友和亲属中有类似症状。
研究结果表明，基于手机的调查是进行发病率调查的一种实用方法。虽然需要进一步的调查来验证这些结果，但这种方法有望促进在社区层面识别淋巴水肿和鞘膜积液的发病率，并为有必要进行进一步发病率调查的地方提供证据。
