How the national health information system (43 files) represents the situation of non-communicable diseases: lessons learned from the stroke surveillance in 8 provinces of Thailand, 2014

Abstract

Backgrounds: Since 2012, the Ministry of Public Health has developed the National Health Information System (43 files). It is included chronic non-communicable disease patients’ information. Therefore, Bureau of Epidemiology has obtained the 43 files for non-communicable surveillance purposes; stroke is one of the diseases under the surveillance. This study aimed to determine representativeness of the 43 files to stroke situation and estimate ratio between the number of stroke patients reported in 43 files and stroke patients recorded in hospital databases.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 8 provinces to compare proportions of demographic data, type of stroke, and co-morbidity diseases between the two data sources. The ratio of reported stroke cases was also calculated. Chi-square test was used for data analyses.
Results: Number of stroke patients in the 43 files and in the hospital databases ratio was 0.48 : 1. The 43 files could represent age and sex distribution of the patients in the hospitals, however, type of stroke and co-morbidity diseases were not represented by the data from 43 files. The proportion of un-specified stroke was as high as 71.6% in 43 files whereas only 40% were found in hospital databases. As low as 0.2% of stroke patients in the 43 files reported dyslipidemia whereas 29.5% of the patients in hospital databases presented with dyslipidemia.
Conclusion: Using the 43 files for surveillance purposes needs more information audits to improve the data quality and completeness of reports.