Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es salaam, Tanzania.
Tanzania Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program, Tanzania.
PLoS One. 2024 Apr 19;19(4):e0299025. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299025. eCollection 2024.
The evaluation of surveillance systems has been recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to identify the performance and areas for improvement. Universal salt iodization (USI) as one of the surveillance systems in Tanzania needs periodic evaluation for its optimal function. This study aimed at evaluating the universal salt iodization (USI) surveillance system in Tanzania from January to December 2021 to find out if the system meets its intended objectives by evaluating its attributes as this was the first evaluation of the USI surveillance system since its establishment in 2010. The USI surveillance system is key for monitoring the performance towards the attainment of universal salt iodization (90%).
This evaluation was guided by the Center for Disease Control Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems, (MMWR) to evaluate USI 2021 data. The study was conducted in Kigoma region in March 2022. Both Purposive and Convenient sampling was used to select the region, district, and ward for the study. The study involved reviewing documents used in the USI system and interviewing the key informants in the USI program. Data analysis was done by Microsoft Excel and presented in tables and graphs.
A total of 1715 salt samples were collected in the year 2021 with 279 (16%) of non-iodized salt identified. The majority of the system attributes 66.7% had a good performance with a score of three, 22.2% had a moderate performance with a score of two and one attribute with poor performance with a score of one. Data quality, completeness and sensitivity were 100%, acceptability 91.6%, simplicity 83% were able to collect data on a single sample in < 2 minutes, the system stability in terms of performance was >75% and the usefulness of the system had poor performance.
Although the system attributes were found to be working overall well, for proper surveillance of the USI system, the core attributes need to be strengthened. Key variables that measure the system performance must be included from the primary data source and well-integrated with the Local Government (district and regions) to Ministry of Health information systems.
世界卫生组织（WHO）建议评估监测系统，以确定其性能和改进领域。作为坦桑尼亚监测系统之一的全民食盐碘化（USI）需要定期评估，以确保其最佳功能。本研究旨在评估 2021 年 1 月至 12 月期间坦桑尼亚的全民食盐碘化（USI）监测系统，以确定该系统是否达到预期目标，评估其属性，因为这是自 2010 年建立以来对 USI 监测系统的首次评估。USI 监测系统是监测实现全民食盐碘化（90%）目标的表现的关键。
本评估遵循疾病控制中心公共卫生监测系统评估指南（MMWR），评估 2021 年 USI 数据。该研究于 2022 年 3 月在基戈马地区进行。采用目的抽样和便利抽样选择该地区、区和病房进行研究。研究涉及审查 USI 系统中使用的文件，并采访 USI 计划中的关键信息提供者。数据分析使用 Microsoft Excel 进行，并以表格和图形形式呈现。
2021 年共采集 1715 份盐样，其中 279 份（16%）为非碘盐。大多数系统属性 66.7%表现良好，得分为 3 分，22.2%表现中等，得分为 2 分，1 个属性表现不佳，得分为 1 分。数据质量、完整性和敏感性为 100%，可接受性为 91.6%，简单性为 83%，能够在<2 分钟内从单个样本中收集数据，系统性能稳定性>75%，系统有用性表现不佳。
尽管系统属性总体上运行良好，但为了对 USI 系统进行适当的监测，需要加强核心属性。必须从主要数据源中纳入衡量系统性能的关键变量，并与地方政府（区和地区）与卫生部信息系统进行良好整合。
