General Directorate for National Health Economics and Policy, Saudi Health Council, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Division of Health Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom.
Front Public Health. 2022 Sep 21;10:875941. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.875941. eCollection 2022.
E-government platforms provide an opportunity to use a novel data source for population health surveillance (also known as e-health). Absher is a Saudi e-government platform with 23 million authenticated users, including residents and citizens in Saudi Arabia. All Absher users were invited to participate in a web-based survey to estimate the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases and their risk factors in Saudi Arabia.
To assess the potential of using an e-government platform (Absher) to administer web-based health surveys.
A cross-sectional, web-based health survey was administered to Absher users between April 2019 and March 2020. The survey instrument included eight items and took <5 min to complete. The respondents' data were compared to Saudi Arabia's 2016 census. Descriptive summary statistics of the prevalence of major noncommuncable diseases are presented and compared to population-based prevalence data from Saudi Arabia's World Health Survey (WHS) 2019. All analysis was conducted using Stata 13.0.
Overall, the Absher health survey had a 24.6% response rate, with most respondents being male (84%), Saudi (67%), and between 30 and 44 years of age (49%). Overall, the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases and risk factors among respondents was high for overweight (35%) and obesity (30%) and low for asthma (6%). The prevalence of diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension was between 15 and 17% on average, and 26.5% were smokers. In comparison to population-based World Health Survey estimates, the Absher survey overestimated obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and smoking rates, and underestimated overweight, whereas asthma prevalence was similar for Absher and the WHS.
With improvements in the study design, the use of e-government platforms can provide a useful and potentially low-cost data source for public health research.
电子政务平台为利用新型数据源进行人群健康监测（也称为电子健康）提供了机会。Absher 是一个拥有 2300 万认证用户的沙特电子政务平台，其中包括沙特阿拉伯的居民和公民。所有 Absher 用户都被邀请参加一项基于网络的调查，以估计沙特阿拉伯非传染性疾病及其危险因素的流行率。
评估利用电子政务平台（Absher）进行网络健康调查的潜力。
2019 年 4 月至 2020 年 3 月期间，对 Absher 用户进行了一项横断面、基于网络的健康调查。调查工具包括八项内容，完成时间不到 5 分钟。将受访者的数据与沙特阿拉伯 2016 年的人口普查进行了比较。给出了主要非传染性疾病流行率的描述性汇总统计数据，并与沙特阿拉伯 2019 年世界卫生调查（WHS）的基于人群的流行率数据进行了比较。所有分析均使用 Stata 13.0 进行。
总体而言，Absher 健康调查的回复率为 24.6%，大多数受访者为男性（84%）、沙特人（67%）和 30 至 44 岁（49%）。总体而言，受访者中非传染性疾病和危险因素的流行率较高，超重（35%）和肥胖（30%），而哮喘（6%）较低。糖尿病、血脂异常和高血压的平均流行率在 15%至 17%之间，26.5%的人吸烟。与基于人群的世界卫生调查估计相比，Absher 调查高估了肥胖、糖尿病、血脂异常、高血压和吸烟率，低估了超重，而哮喘流行率在 Absher 和 WHS 之间相似。
通过改进研究设计，利用电子政务平台可以为公共卫生研究提供有用且潜在低成本的数据来源。
