The Cholera Phone: Diarrheal Disease Surveillance by Mobile Phone in Bangladesh

leela sengupta; Charlotte Crim Tamason; Rebeca Sultana; Suhella Tulsiani; Matthew Phelps; Emily S Gurley; Peter Kjær Mackie Jensen

doi:10.4269/ajtmh.18-0546

The Cholera Phone: Diarrheal Disease Surveillance by Mobile Phone in Bangladesh

leela sengupta, Charlotte Crim Tamason, Rebeca Sultana, Suhella Tulsiani, Matthew Phelps, Emily S Gurley, Peter Kjær Mackie Jensen

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Existing methodologies to record diarrheal disease incidence in households have limitations due to a highepisode recall error outside a 48-hour window. Our objective was to use mobile phones for reporting diarrheal episodes in households to provide real-time incidence data with minimum resource consumption and low recall error. From June 2014 to June 2015, we enrolled 417 low-income households in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and asked them to report diarrheal episodes to a call center. A team of data collectors then visited persons reporting the episode to collect data. In addition, each month, the team conducted in-home surveys on diarrhea incidence for a preceding 48-hour period. The mobile phone surveillance reported an incidence of 0.16 cases per person-year (95% CI: 0.13 0.19), with 117 reported diarrhea cases, and the routine in-home survey detected an incidence of 0.33 cases per person-year (95% CI: 0.18 0.60), the incidence rate ratio was 2.11 (95% CI: 1.08 3.78). During focus group discussions, participants reported a lack in motivation to report diarrhea by phone because of the absence of provision of intervening treatment following reporting. Mobile phone technology can provide a unique tool for real-time disease reporting. The phone surveillance in this study reported a lower incidence of diarrhea than an in-home survey, possibly because of the absence of intervention and, therefore, a perceived lack of incentive to report.

Original language	English
Journal	American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Volume	100
Issue number	3
Pages (from-to)	510-516
Number of pages	6
ISSN	0002-9637
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.18-0546
Publication status	Published - 2019

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title = "The Cholera Phone: Diarrheal Disease Surveillance by Mobile Phone in Bangladesh",

abstract = "Existing methodologies to record diarrheal disease incidence in households have limitations due to a highepisode recall error outside a 48-hour window. Our objective was to use mobile phones for reporting diarrheal episodes in households to provide real-time incidence data with minimum resource consumption and low recall error. From June 2014 to June 2015, we enrolled 417 low-income households in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and asked them to report diarrheal episodes to a call center. A team of data collectors then visited persons reporting the episode to collect data. In addition, each month, the team conducted in-home surveys on diarrhea incidence for a preceding 48-hour period. The mobile phone surveillance reported an incidence of 0.16 cases per person-year (95% CI: 0.13 0.19), with 117 reported diarrhea cases, and the routine in-home survey detected an incidence of 0.33 cases per person-year (95% CI: 0.18 0.60), the incidence rate ratio was 2.11 (95% CI: 1.08 3.78). During focus group discussions, participants reported a lack in motivation to report diarrhea by phone because of the absence of provision of intervening treatment following reporting. Mobile phone technology can provide a unique tool for real-time disease reporting. The phone surveillance in this study reported a lower incidence of diarrhea than an in-home survey, possibly because of the absence of intervention and, therefore, a perceived lack of incentive to report.",

author = "leela sengupta and Tamason, {Charlotte Crim} and Rebeca Sultana and Suhella Tulsiani and Matthew Phelps and Gurley, {Emily S} and Jensen, {Peter Kj{\ae}r Mackie}",

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T1 - The Cholera Phone

T2 - Diarrheal Disease Surveillance by Mobile Phone in Bangladesh

AU - sengupta, leela

AU - Tamason, Charlotte Crim

AU - Sultana, Rebeca

AU - Tulsiani, Suhella

AU - Phelps, Matthew

AU - Gurley, Emily S

AU - Jensen, Peter Kjær Mackie

PY - 2019

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ER -

The Cholera Phone: Diarrheal Disease Surveillance by Mobile Phone in Bangladesh

Abstract

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