Opportunities and Challenges in Public Health Data Collection in Southern Asia: Examples from Western India and Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Small-scale local data resources may serve to provide a highly resolved estimate of health effects, which can be spatially heterogeneous in highly populated urban centers in developing countries. We aim to highlight the challenges and opportunities of health data registries in a developing world con...

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Main Authors: Amruta Nori-Sarma, Anobha Gurung, Gulrez Shah Azhar, Ajit Rajiva, Dileep Mavalankar, Perry Sheffield, Michelle L. Bell
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2017-06-01
Series:Sustainability
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/7/1106
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spelling doaj-db859482f3db41619c9e55a69a2e4c8f2020-11-24T23:19:37ZengMDPI AGSustainability2071-10502017-06-0197110610.3390/su9071106su9071106Opportunities and Challenges in Public Health Data Collection in Southern Asia: Examples from Western India and Kathmandu Valley, NepalAmruta Nori-Sarma0Anobha Gurung1Gulrez Shah Azhar2Ajit Rajiva3Dileep Mavalankar4Perry Sheffield5Michelle L. Bell6School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USADepartment of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USAPardee RAND Graduate School, Santa Monica, CA 90401, USASchool of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USAPublic Health Foundation of India, Indian Institute of Public Health—Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382042, IndiaDepartment of Environmental Medicine and Public Health and Department of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USASchool of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USASmall-scale local data resources may serve to provide a highly resolved estimate of health effects, which can be spatially heterogeneous in highly populated urban centers in developing countries. We aim to highlight the challenges and opportunities of health data registries in a developing world context. In western India, government-collected daily mortality registry data were obtained from five cities, along with daily hospital admissions data from three government hospitals in Ahmedabad. In Nepal, individual-level data on hospital admissions were collected from six major hospitals in Kathmandu Valley. Our process illustrates many challenges for researchers, governments, and record keepers inherent to data collection in developing countries: creating and maintaining a centralized record-keeping system; standardizing the data collected; obtaining data from some local agencies; assuring data completeness and availability of back-ups to the datasets; as well as translating, cleaning, and comparing data within and across localities. We suggest that these “small-data” resources may better serve the analysis of health outcomes than exposure-response functions extrapolated from data collected in other areas of the world.http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/7/1106capacity buildingdata collectionhospital admissionsIndiamortalitypublic healthNepalSouth Asia
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Amruta Nori-Sarma
Anobha Gurung
Gulrez Shah Azhar
Ajit Rajiva
Dileep Mavalankar
Perry Sheffield
Michelle L. Bell
spellingShingle Amruta Nori-Sarma
Anobha Gurung
Gulrez Shah Azhar
Ajit Rajiva
Dileep Mavalankar
Perry Sheffield
Michelle L. Bell
Opportunities and Challenges in Public Health Data Collection in Southern Asia: Examples from Western India and Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
Sustainability
capacity building
data collection
hospital admissions
India
mortality
public health
Nepal
South Asia
author_facet Amruta Nori-Sarma
Anobha Gurung
Gulrez Shah Azhar
Ajit Rajiva
Dileep Mavalankar
Perry Sheffield
Michelle L. Bell
author_sort Amruta Nori-Sarma
title Opportunities and Challenges in Public Health Data Collection in Southern Asia: Examples from Western India and Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
title_short Opportunities and Challenges in Public Health Data Collection in Southern Asia: Examples from Western India and Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
title_full Opportunities and Challenges in Public Health Data Collection in Southern Asia: Examples from Western India and Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
title_fullStr Opportunities and Challenges in Public Health Data Collection in Southern Asia: Examples from Western India and Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
title_full_unstemmed Opportunities and Challenges in Public Health Data Collection in Southern Asia: Examples from Western India and Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
title_sort opportunities and challenges in public health data collection in southern asia: examples from western india and kathmandu valley, nepal
publisher MDPI AG
series Sustainability
issn 2071-1050
publishDate 2017-06-01
description Small-scale local data resources may serve to provide a highly resolved estimate of health effects, which can be spatially heterogeneous in highly populated urban centers in developing countries. We aim to highlight the challenges and opportunities of health data registries in a developing world context. In western India, government-collected daily mortality registry data were obtained from five cities, along with daily hospital admissions data from three government hospitals in Ahmedabad. In Nepal, individual-level data on hospital admissions were collected from six major hospitals in Kathmandu Valley. Our process illustrates many challenges for researchers, governments, and record keepers inherent to data collection in developing countries: creating and maintaining a centralized record-keeping system; standardizing the data collected; obtaining data from some local agencies; assuring data completeness and availability of back-ups to the datasets; as well as translating, cleaning, and comparing data within and across localities. We suggest that these “small-data” resources may better serve the analysis of health outcomes than exposure-response functions extrapolated from data collected in other areas of the world.
topic capacity building
data collection
hospital admissions
India
mortality
public health
Nepal
South Asia
url http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/7/1106
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